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| Pappa was part of the successful team that rubbed John Gotti Ally Joseph Scopo. |
Pappa, who committed four murders at the age of 19 and was sentenced and sentenced to several perpetuity sentences, filed a compassionate release request on December 19, 2022.
Pappa asked the court to give him a reduction in sentences under article 3582 (c) (1) (a) on the basis of what he argued was “extraordinary and convincing circumstances”:
– his education and his young people when he committed the crimes of condemnation;
– the fact that a perpetuity sentence in his case is unusually long given his young age at the time of his convictions, which, in turn, “creates a disparity of determination of the sentence” compared to “practices of determination at the national level for people recognized as guilty of murder before the federal court”;
– the incapacity of the tribunal for determining the penalty to consider the attenuating circumstances of Pappa youth and education due to the directives of determining the mandatory sentence which applied at the time of its conviction;
– and its extraordinary rehabilitation while imprisoned
“The court cannot shake the impression, after having observed and listening to the defendant during the procedure in April of two hours, that he does not feel any remorse as to commit the four murders or empathy for the victims or their families,” wrote Chen. “The declarations of the defendant … felt covered and performative.”
Pappa was caught during a wedding rehearsal on Staten Island (by Tommy Dades) in 1997. (One of his four victims was the brother of the man who got married.)
In October 1993, as part of a team of three men “assembled by Eric Curcio, the leader of a team of” Rising Associates “of the Colombo family, the defendant killed the high -ranking Colombo family Joseph Scopo on October 20, 1993, when Curcio, Pappa and John Sparacino set him the tension when he returned to his home.
Although Sparacino sprayed the vehicle in which Scopo was with gunshots, Scopo managed to get out of the vehicle and flee on foot. The accused continued Scopo and shot him, hitting him three times and killing him. After the murder of Scopo, Sparacino began to attribute the merit of the murder even if it was the accused (Pappa) who had actually killed Scopo. This prompted the defendant and curcio to agree that Sparacino had to be killed so that the defendant and the curcio could claim the credit for the murder of Scopo. Although there was at least an unsuccessful attempt to kill Sparacino later, the plan of killing Sparacino did not materialize until August 1994. In the meantime, in June 1994, the defendant and Curcio worked together to assassinate one of the close friends of Sparacino, Rolando Rivera because Rivera had revealed to his girlfriend a warning that made Curcio he moves him away. When Curcio advised the defendant of the act of indiscretion of Rivera, the two men agreed that Rivera should be killed. The accused and Curcio organized a meeting with Rivera, and on June 7, 1994, the three men led together in a stolen van to Staten Island. Just after the van crossed on Staten Island, Rivera was killed four times. The accused and Curcio then pushed Rivera, who was still alive, out of the moving van. Although Rivera was found alive that night by a police officer on leave, he died shortly after.
In July 1994, the plan of Killing Sparacino was relaunched after it was reported that Sparacino had openly denigrated the defendant and the Curcio in a night club on the two men who attributed to the murder of Scopo. After learning this curcio incident, the defendant asked his friend, Calvin Hennigar, who helped Sparacino distribute medications on Staten Island, to help kill Sparacino.
The defendant and Hennigar were partners in a retail drug company which distributed large quantities of marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy between June 1992 and December 1997.
On August 13, 1994, Hennigar attracted Sparacino to the Hennigar’s house in Staten Island where Hennigar fired on Sparacino at the back of the head, killing him. Two days later, the defendant and Hennigar transported the Sparacino corpse to a stolen car in another place in Staten Island and set fire to the car. An autopsy later revealed that Sparacino had been linked to a pork and that his mutilated body; A shutter of skin had been cut off from Sparacino’s face and his penis had been cut and placed in his mouth. In October 1994, after suspected that Curcio had not properly credited the defendant for the murder of Scopo and that Curcio could have killed one of the close friends of the accused who had been a member of the Curcio crew, the defendant killed Curcio. The defendant initially but in vain to recruit several organized crime partners to help the murder of Curcio, leaving the defendant to murder Curcio alone. On October 4, 1994, the defendant set an ambush to Curcio to his business location, pulling him more than ten times in the face, chest and hand, killing him.
On December 30, 1997, the defendant was charged in an indictment replaced over eleven crime charges. The murders of Scopo, Rivera, Sparacino and Curcio have been charged as predicate acts for racketeering offense.
In May 1999, Pappa was sentenced to trial.
In November 1999, he was sentenced to six simultaneous life sentences, one on each of the two racketeers and the two murder charges, one on the drug trafficking, and one on the count of the drug trafficking conspiracy. He also underwent simultaneous ten -year penalties on the two murder and consecutive sentences of five and 20 years old on the two firearms.
By denying the request for compassion for compassion, judge Chen noted:
“The four murders committed by the defendant were brutal and insane. The defendant killed Sparacino and Curcio for having taken the credit, or perhaps by taking the credit, for a murder that the defendant had committed and wanted the credit to, and the defendant killed Rive for a single act of indiscretion. Rivera and Sparacino, in particular, demonstrate unusual depravity and cruelty, and in the case of sparacino, sadism.
“The depravity of the conduct of the defendant with regard to the murder of Sparacino is reinforced by the close relationship of the defendant with the Sparacino family at the time of the murder and the continuous relationship of the defendant with the family after the murder, while the family cried their loss and the search for the sparacino killer. At my table several times and was treated as a family member. concern and his confusion about the disappearance of my son knowing very well the atrocities he has committed;
The cousin of Sparacino described Pappa and its conduct in this way:
The man who murdered my cousin was charming and kind. He was also sneaky and cunning. He used these features to keep himself near my pink aunt (Sparacino’s mother) and my cousin, Sal (Sparacino brother), knowing very well the atrocity he had committed.
While our family was looking for my cousin, John (Sparacino), his killer was in my aunt’s house, pretending to help the excavation. When the body (of sparacino) was found in a horrible state, his killer remained close to my cousin, Sal, never showing a moment of guilt or remorse on what he had done, only concern if suspicions were on him. He sat down at my aunt’s table knowing the vicious and brutal way he had killed (his) son.
