Gambino family associate Anthony Pandrella convicted of murdering his friend Vincent Zito
Last month, it was confirmed that Brooklyn resident Anthony Pandrella, 62, had been found guilty of murder in the 2018 death of his longtime friend Vincent Zito, 77, who he lived with for many years.
Zito was executed inside the house of the man who refused to return Zito’s money.
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A loan of $750,000 was given to him by Zito as a “safekeeping” measure after Pandrella warned him that he was “hot”, meaning the police were on his trail.
Although he initially refused to give him his money back, claiming that it had disappeared from his basement, he eventually returned $300,000 to him.
On the day he was scheduled to return the remaining items to the store, his 30-year-old friend was fatally shot by the gunman.
As per the allegations, Zito is accused of meeting the elderly man at his Sheepshead Bay residence, shooting him twice in the back of the head at close range, and then stealing his loansharking assets, including the expensive foreign watches that Zito was holding as collateral for his loansharking operation.
Anthony Pandrella (right) (Audacy)
Despite the fact that Pandrella allegedly tried to destroy the evidence of the murder, his DNA was found on a gun at Zito’s house.
In addition, a surveillance camera was able to capture him entering and exiting Zito’s. When Pandrella returned home, prosecutors alleged that a neighbor’s surveillance cameras captured him getting dressed, changing his shoes, and taking out the driver’s side floor mat from his car in order to clean it.
It is claimed by prosecutors that Zito’s 11-year-old grandson discovered his body after he came home from school in the afternoon.
Brooklyn US Attorney Peace released a statement stating that the jury had determined that the defendant, in addition to being a cold-blooded killer, shot his elderly friend at home, execution-style, in the back of his head, to avoid returning the large sum of money he was holding for his victim. Aside from the violent betrayal, the defendant “raped the victim and stole luxury watches from her loan business.”
As a result of this conviction, Pandrella could be sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in jail and a maximum of life in prison.
