Mobster and drug gang killer ordered released by federal judge: ‘I am letting two murderers sentenced to life out of prison’


John Annese, New York Daily News
Wed, November 2, 2022 

Two convicted killers — including mob capo Anthony Russo, who ordered murders during the bloody Colombo crime family civil war — are being released from prison by a federal judge.

Russo and Paul Moore, a drug trafficker who fatally shot a rival, were given reduced sentences Wednesday by Judge Frederic Block under the First Step Act.

The felons applied for compassionate release under the criminal justice reform bill, which was signed into law by Donald Trump in 2018.

Block noted that Russo and Moore were model prisoners, and that they were punished with life sentences for exercising their right to trial.

“I am letting two murderers sentenced to life out of prison,” Block wrote Wednesday. “But I have painstakingly endeavored to explain why it is the appropriate thing to do under the First Step Act.”

The two men won’t be sprung immediately, but Block cut both their prison terms to 35 years.

That means Russo, 70, still owes six years of his sentence, while Moore, 56, has about three years to go, though both could potentially get credit for good time.

Russo and two others were convicted in 1994 of conspiring to murder John Minerva and Michael Imbergamo during the battle between Colombo boss Victor Orena and Alphonse Persico — the son of jailed Colombo head Carmine “The Snake” Persico. A dozen killings have been linked to the bloody conflict.

Russo served as a captain under Orena, but when the war broke out in 1991, he sided with Persico. On March 25, 1992, Russo’s subordinates stalked Minerva and Imbergamo — who sided with Orena — to a cafe Minerva owned on Long Island, and shot them dead as they walked to their cars.

In his memo, Block praised the First Step Act, which has led to the reduction of more than 4,000 prison sentences. Russo and Moore’s cases “reflect the broad range of issues” that Block believes judges should look at while weighing compassionate release requests,” he wrote.

“The Act was a remarkable piece of bipartisan legislation by an otherwise divided Congress and reflected the realization by lawyers on both sides of the aisle that sentencing reform of the judicial system was sorely needed,” Block said.

Block, 88, has served on the federal bench since his appointment by President Clinton in 1994.

Prior to that, at the retrial in the slaying of a Hasidic man during the 1991 Crown Heights riot, Block asked a Black witness to define the slang term “‘chillin’ for somebody who is not a brother.”

He has a reputation for shooting from the hip, and was ripped on the front page of the Daily News in 2007 with the headline “Judge Blockhead” after he ridiculed prosecutors for seeking the death penalty against a drug kingpin during a racketeering murder trial.

Russo “has clearly demonstrated that he has achieved extraordinary rehabilitation” when he applied for compassionate release in April and pointed to his health problems and his risk of catching COVID-19, Block wrote.

He also contends that Russo shouldn’t be penalized for choosing to go to trial.

“Russo exercised his constitutional right to trial. Of Russo’s 14 co-defendants, seven went to trial. Six received mandatory life sentences under the then-mandatory sentencing guidelines. The seventh was acquitted,” he wrote. “In contrast, the remaining co-defendants received sentences ranging from time-served, equating to approximately four years, to 270 months.”

Those other defendants were accused of actions “no less violent or destructive than those who received life sentences,” he said.

Federal prosecutors opposed Russo’s early release, arguing that he showed a “disregard for the law and human life,” and that he could still become a player in the Colombo crime family.

“Russo rose through the ranks to serve as a captain of the Colombo crime family, a position from which he gave direction to the ‘made men’ who reported to him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Lash wrote to the judge. “His risk he poses (even at an advanced age) comes from the influence he has over others in the enterprise.”

The judge made similar arguments about Moore, a Jamaican immigrant who served as an enforcer for drug boss Eric Vassell, and was tasked with expanding his gang’s influence from Brooklyn to Texas. Moore and an accomplice shot and killed a rival drug dealer in 1991, and he shot one of his own gang members in the leg to discipline him for disrespecting Vassell, Block wrote.

“Like Russo, Moore has also been the victim of sentencing disparities. Only Moore and one of his 46 co-defendants are serving life sentences,” Block said. “Eric Vassell, who accepted a plea deal, murdered two people and ordered the murders of several others. He is scheduled to be released from prison in December after serving approximately 25 years.”

Moore, who applied for compassionate release last November, has agreed not to fight deportation after he’s freed.

A spokesman for Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Breon Peace declined comment.

Lawyers for Russo and Moore did not return messages seeking comment.