Spat over witnesses stalls trial in fatal conspiracy case

A man accused of conspiring to rob and kill a widow argues with his attorney over allowing three witnesses to testify.

By JEFF TESTERMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 27, 2000

TAMPA -- The conspiracy trial of Anthony Carcione was postponed prematurely Thursday after the defendant got into a shouting match with his court-appointed defense attorney, Thomas Ostrander.

Carcione, a 30-year-old unemployed Chicago man, is facing a possible life sentence if convicted of federal charges of conspiracy to use interstate commerce to rob and murder Jean Schwarzkopf, a 78-year-old widow found dead in her Gulf Harbors home in New Port Richey in September 1997.

During a break in the trial Thursday, Carcione got into a loud argument with Ostrander. Carcione said he wants to offer the testimony of three witnesses. Ostrander said he prefers to offer no testimony for the defense.

With jurors out of the courtroom, U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara told Carcione he would allow the three witnesses but warned that their testimony might not aid his case. "These witnesses could, as they say, blow up in your face, and then you're stuck with it," Lazzara counseled. "You're at a substantial risk if you put these witnesses on."

Carcione was asked by the judge if he would take the witness stand, and Carcione said he would not.

Testifying might lead to questions about his violent past. Court records show that Carcione has three separate convictions for aggravated battery for which he received prison sentences totaling 13 years.

Ostrander has claimed that Carcione was merely a dupe in the Schwarzkopf murder, and that the plan to rob the elderly woman of her 8-carat, $40,000 diamond ring was masterminded by Ottavio Volpe.

Volpe, 42, an illegal Italian immigrant, has pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in the case. The onetime owner of the La Cosa Nostra Italian bakery (later renamed Mama Angelina's bakery) in New Port Richey has testified that he hatched the plan to rob Schwarzkopf and recruited Carcione from Chicago to pull off the crime.

Volpe said he didn't "have the guts" to do the robbery himself and had no idea Carcione would harm Schwarzkopf.

Volpe has also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce fraudulent driver's licenses involving the bribery of an examiner at a Florida driver's license bureau in Port Richey. Volpe admitted paying an examiner up to $100 apiece for fraudulent driver's licenses, sometimes passing along the payoffs in a pastry box.

Volpe was charged last year after an undercover FBI agent bought a phony license from him for $700. Volpe faces a possible 15-year sentence and a $250,000 fine on the driver's license conspiracy. He is cooperating with federal prosecutors with the understanding that he will receive a recommendation for a reduced sentence on all federal charges.

Thursday, prosecutors rested their case against Carcione after testimony from law enforcement officers who interviewed Carcione in Chicago.

Asked why he had flown to Pasco County from Chicago in 1997, then gotten a ride back to Chicago two days later from an associate named Camillo "Frankie Southside" Gigliotti, Carcione told investigators, "I had a problem with an old lady, so f------ what?" according to testimony from Lombard, Ill., police Detective John Malatia.

In a second interview in which Gigliotti was asked to identify Carcione as the man he chauffeured back to Chicago after the murder, Carcione told Gigliotti, "Paisano, . . . shut your f------ mouth, we got lawyers," according to testimony from Pasco County Sheriff's Detective James Sessa Jr.

Also testifying Thursday was Paul Kendall, a Chicago friend of Carcione who says he overheard him talking about a diamond heist. Kendall said Carcione was "sort of raggedy" before the 1997 murder, but afterward had money to buy nicer clothes and even visited a Cadillac dealership to shop for a car.

Kendall also related an incident months after the murder in which he and Carcione were riding in a car in Chicago when a gang member tossed a bottle at them and Carcione remarked, "Don't they know they're messing with a murderer?"

Judge Lazzara told jurors they should expect to begin deliberations in the case and work until about 5 p.m. The judge said he would not sequester the panel but send jurors home at about 5 if no verdict has been reached.

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