With the simple words, “My client, Mr. Salemme, rests his case,” the nearly two-month-long trial of one-time New England Mafia boss Francis Salemme was almost over.
After seven weeks of testimony for the prosecution, which finally rested its case Thursday, lawyers for former New England Mafia boss Frank Salemme and co-defendant Paul Weadick presented just a few witnesses of their own before resting as well.
Prosecutors may have a brief rebuttal on Friday; but jurors will hear closing arguments Monday and begin deliberating.
Salemme and Weadick each told US District Judge Allison Burroughs that they were aware of their right to testify and had chosen not to take the stand.
Burroughs said she would remind jurors in the strongest language she could that they are not to consider the defendants’ decision not to testify as evidence of their guilt.
The development wasn’t unexpected: In opening remarks, lawyers for Salemme and Weadick reminded jurors that the burden of proof falls on the government’s shoulders and that their clients are under no obligation to assert their innocence.
Salemme and Weadick are accused of the murder of Stephen DiSarro, former owner of the storied rock club The Channel, in 1993.
Prosecutors allege that Salemme ordered DiSarro killed, fearing Disarro – who was under investigation at the time for bank fraud – would inform on his and his associates’ criminal activity to authorities. They say DiSarro was strangled by co-defendant Weadick and Salemme’s son, Frank Jr., who died in 1995.
The prosecution’s case is built largely around the testimony of several ex-mobsters, including Joseph and Robert DeLuca, brothers and former made Mafia members who testified that Salemme had called them in 1993, just after DiSarro had gone missing, and ordered them to dispose of a body; Joseph DeLuca testified to burying the body at the industrial site in Providence where DiSarro’s remains were recovered.
Stephen Flemmi, a former hit man, enforcer and gangster with Whitey Bulger’s Winter Hill Gang, testified to having walked in on the murder by accident, when he came to Salemme’s house to find him. Flemmi is the only alleged eye witness to the murder to testify.
Lawyers for both Salemme and Weadick have spent weeks cross examining those witnesses; and the choice not to assert a robust defense themselves fits with the chief defense for both men: That the testimony of those former gangsters can’t be believed – both because the witnesses are proven criminals and liars and because all of the ex-mobsters to testify in this case have made deals with prosecutors in exchange for their cooperation.
Stephen Flemmi, himself incarcerated after pleading guilty to ten murders, was able to avoid the death penalty for his ongoing cooperation with federal prosecutors.
