Anthony Nicodemo a reputed Philadelphia mafia soldier won’t have his retrial on murder charges until some time in 2015 after a new pretrial conference was scheduled for December 1 during a recent status conference. An exact date for the retrial has yet to be decided on but should be set sometime during or after the pretrial conference. Nicodemo is charged with the 2012 murder of Gino DiPietro who was gunned down in broad daylight in South Philly. The original trial ended in a mistrial with multiple jurors being dismissed and rumors and speculation of possible jury tampering. There has yet to be any charges of jury tampering but Assistant District Attorney Brian Zarallo was quoted as saying there is an ongoing investigation into the matter.
“Anthony Nicodemo”
Family members have denied any connection between DiPietro and the Philly mob and authorities have never labeled him a member or associate of the Philadelphia crime family. It is unclear as if the hit had anything to do with mafia business or was something else and prosecutors were not allowed to use any links to organized crime during the first trial because they could not prove it was a mob hit. Nicodemo was not identified as the shooter in the murder by prosecutors but they claim his job was to help the actual shooter who is still at large to escape and to get rid of the weapon.
Nicodemo was taken into custody at his home and the murder weapon used to gun down DiPietro a 357-Magnum was found in his SUV. His lawyers claimed that he was the victim of a car jacking by a masked gunman who stashed the weapon in his vehicle and had no knowledge of the murder. This seems to be a story that is going to be hard to sell to a jury and only time will tell if the defense team continues to use it when the retrial comes around.
With months to go before a retrial would begin it means more time for the feds to try and get Nicodemo to switch sides and cooperate. It is believed that he could fill the feds in on some still unsolved mafia murders which could lead to indictments on some of the top members of the past and current Philadelphia mafia including that of Joe Ligambi and Joey Merlino among others. So it may be an uneasy rest of the year for some Philly wiseguys.
