Federal sentencing in Mob case becomes life imitating art

Fans of the HBO TV series The Sopranos surely remember the fascinating character of Vito Spatafore, who was a subordinate of mob boss Tony Soprano and a closeted gay.  This New York Daily News article reports on a sentencing in federal court yesterday that has life imitating HBO art:

Mob hit man Robert Mormando stunned a veteran Brooklyn judge Monday when he renounced his membership in La Cosa Nostra and — for good measure — acknowledged he was gay.  "That's the first time I've heard this in court," Federal Judge Jack Weinstein said of the mobster's renunciation of his blood oath. "I've asked many Mafia members and they've always refused," added Weinstein who was appointed to the bench in 1967 by President Lyndon Johnson.

Mormando, 44, a divorced father of two sons, was being sentenced for participating in the shooting of Queens bagel store owner Angelo Mugnolo, who was wounded in the driveway of his Howard Beach home in 2003.  The rubout was ordered by Vincent Gotti, the younger brother of late crime boss John Gotti, who suspected the baker was fooling around with his wife. Mormando became a government informant shortly after the shooting....

Defense lawyer Nancy Ennis told the judge Mormando was given the contract a month after he was inducted into the crime family in 2002.  "He was summoned to perform an act that he found totally unacceptable afterward," Ennis said....

Ennis' biggest bombshell was announcing that Mormando is out of the closet.  "He has been openly gay since he left the mob," Ennis said.  Mormando's partner has refused to enter the witness protection program, but they have relocated and together they "live a peaceful working life," she said.