NEW YORK _ An 82-year-old reputed boss in the Bonanno crime family, Vincent Asaro, and John J. Gotti, grandson of the late Queens crime boss John Gotti, were responsible for setting fire to the car of a man who cut in front of Asaro in traffic, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
That arson was among a series of crimes _ including a jewelry store robbery in Franklin Square, a home invasion in Queens and a bank robbery in Queens _ cited in two indictments unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn that named Asaro, Gotti, 23, and five other men, all Queens residents.
Asaro was acquitted in 2015 of the theft of more than $6 million in cash and jewels from a Lufthansa facility at John F. Kennedy Airport in 1978.
"The defendants are charged with committing an assortment of violent crimes _ arson to exact punishment for a perceived slight and robberies to unjustly enrich themselves," acting U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Rohde said in a news release.
She said Asaro was driving in the Howard Beach section of Queens in April 2012 when another motorist switched lanes in front of him at a traffic light.
He later got the home address of the vehicle owner and Asaro ordered a mob associate to set fire to the vehicle, the prosecutor said.
She said the associate then recruited Gotti and Matthew Rullan, 26, and all three men set fire to the car on April 4, 2012.
Two weeks after that, Gotti, Rullan and Michael Guidici, 22, of Queens, robbed the Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan Association by claiming to have a bomb, she said. They got away with $5,491, the prosecutor said.
Christopher Boothby, 37, an alleged member of the Bonanno crime family, and Matthew Hattley, 26, stole $50,000 in cash and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry during a home invasion in Queens on March 12, 2014, the prosecutor said.
Hattley and Darren Elliott, 30, are charged with the gunpoint robbery of a jewelry store in Franklin Square and getting away with $250,000 in merchandise, the prosecutor said. The store owners were tied up and menaced with guns, she said.
They are also charged with the attempted robbery of two jewelry stores in Franklin Square between Aug. 17, 2011, and May 4, 2012, the prosecutor said.
The defendants were scheduled to be arraigned later in the day in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
They each face a maximum of 20 years in prison on robbery, attempted robbery, arson and arson conspiracy charges, prosecutors said.
Asaro, Gotti and Ruland each face a mandatory minimum of five years if convicted of the charges related to arson, prosecutors said.
