Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 11, 1990 TAG: 9006110260
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Mondello, 19, the reputed ringleader, had been acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges, but convicted of riot, unlawful imprisonment and discrimination in the Aug. 23 incident that touched off racial tensions across the city.
"Without Mr. Mondello, there would not have been the death of anyone. It was a senseless death," said state Supreme Court Justice Thaddeus Owens of Brooklyn.
Prosecutors wanted to give Mondello consecutive sentences. The judge complied.
Another defendant, Joseph Fama, also was to be sentenced on murder and other convictions in the killing of Yusuf Hawkins, 16. He could face 32 years to life in prison.
Hawkins and three friends went to the racially tense Bensonhurst section to look at a used car when a mob of whites, having been warned about "outsiders," set upon them.
In arguing for the stiffest sentence possible for Mondello, Assistant District Attorney Paul Burns said, "I think it is clear from the verdict that was returned that Mr. Mondello played a pivotal role in organizing the riot that led to the death of Yusuf Hawkins."
Mondello, asked if he wanted to speak, said, "No, I do not."
As his hands were cuffed behind his back, he glanced briefly at his parents, Susan and Michael Mondello, who sat in the second row of the packed courtroom.
Moses Stewart, Yusuf's father, breathed an audible sigh of relief.
by CNB