Philadelphia police have officially charged reputed Philadelphia mafia soldier Anthony Nicodemo with the murder of Gino DiPietro.
DiPietro was shot to death outside of his home in South Philadelphia Wednesday afternoon in what is being considered as a possible mob hit. A black Honda SUV was seen speeding away from the scene by witnesses and a license plate tag was passed on to police. Philly police later located the vehicle which is registered to Nicodemo at the home. A search of the vehicle produced a gun and reports are police were able to match a bullet fragment found on cloths of DiPietro to the gun that was found. It is still unclear what the motive for the murder may be but DiPietro was a known drug dealer and had ties to the Philly mob. Some reports claim that DiPietro may have been targeted because he was cooperating with police.
“Anthony Nicodemo”
This murder could impact the ongoing Philly mafia trial of Joseph Ligambi and six co-defendants. DiPietro’s name has been mentioned on wiretapped conversations played by the prosecution as evidence against the Philly wiseguys. Now there is a worry that jurors of the Ligambi trial may be exposed to news coverage of the DiPietro murder and hinder the defense’s case. Federal Judge hearing the case said on Thursday that he would meet with jurors individually and question them to see if they had been exposed to the DiPietro murder coverage. The murder comes as the prosecution concluded its eight weeks of testimony against the Philadelphia mobsters.
