Matthew Madonna, Steven Crea, two co-defendants get new trial in murder case
The Appellate Court has granted Crea, Madonna, Londonio, and Caldwell their extension of time request so they can file their Rule 33 motion for a new trial in the district court.
Lawyers for Steven L. Crea, Matthew Madonna, Christopher Londonio, and Terrance Caldwell filed a joint motion asking the Appellate Court to delay a required scheduling filing until August.
They planned on using a Rule 33 motion to seek a new trial. The reason, the lawyers said, was that they had found new evidence containing “Brady, Giglio, or Rule 16 material.”
Meldish, a notorious drug dealer, had been found in his car in a Bronx neighborhood with a single gunshot wound to the head on November 15, 2013.
Crea, Madonna, and the other two were charged with the murder ultimately leading to their 2019 conviction, but the evidence presented during that trial has remained highly controversial.
Defense counsel wouldn’t give any specifics on what the newly discovered evidence might be, but Crea’s attorney Anthony DiPietro did hint at a series of podcast appearances being the ammunition for a new trial.
“There are public podcasts/shows made by some of the witnesses that we believe reveal new information that requires a new trial… [this information]will be addressed in our prospective filing,” DiPietro told the Defendant Digest.
Over the last year, numerous former mobsters have been appearing on YouTube and other platforms. One of the only members to have testified during the Meldish murder trial was former Lucchese soldier John Pennisi, who currently has his own blog site Sitdown News and is a co-host of The MBA and The Button Man podcast.
About The Mafia also interviewed John Pennisi on YouTube in April 2021.
Pennisi began his podcast journey in November 2020 after he received a time-served sentence.
It is currently unknown which podcasts and YouTube figures might be part of the “new evidence.” In the filing, the lawyers stated they were “seeking additional discovery in the wake of (their) review” of the new evidence.
The Rule 33 motion is expected to be filed this summer in White Plains U.S. District Court where Crea, Madonna, Londonio, and Caldwell stood trial in 2019. All four received life sentences last year.
