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Family Seeks Freedom For Gambino Associate Serving 150 Years For Theft Of 15 Cars
Henry Borelli stands convicted of stealing 15 cars three decades ago. Two cohorts found guilty of the same crime got out of prison a dozen years ago. Two pals in the same notorious Gambino crew were convicted of many murders. They're still behind bars, but have a dim light at the end of their tunnel. But Borelli, whose 150-year sentence is a record for Mafia cases, will have to set a U.S. record for longevity to breathe free fresh air again. His daughter and sister are asking, where is the justice?
Two weeks ago, more than 30 years after Borelli, now 67, began his trek through nine states and a dozen federal prisons, his daughter Maida asked Manhattan Federal Court Chief Judge Loretta Preska to release him. "My family needs him home," she said at the end of her one-paragraph letter.
The letter — a week-long project written March 22, notarized the next day, and filed on March 28 — gives no good legal reason why Preska, who is not assigned to the case, should do it. Chances of it succeeding seem worse than the old phrase, slim and none. But Borelli's case illustrates the unequal ways that sentences are meted out by judges — and administered — by the Bureau Of Prisons, which currently holds sway over 196,285 inmates in 135 facilities around the country.
"I speak to him every day," she told Gang Land this week, after we spotted her filing and called. "It's terrible — 150 years for stealing 15 cars. My father has served more time than anyone else in his case. It's not fair to him, or to us. He needs to be released. We need him home," she said.
Maida, a school bus driver, says it's been several years since she's seen her dad, and about 16 years since the whole family was able to visit him, when he was in Kansas, at Leavenworth. He is currently in West Virginia, a tedious eight-hour ride.
The drive-time and cost are not the main reasons. "He tells us not to come," she said. "He has a tough time when we leave, getting back into population. He says it's less stressful if we talk on the phone, but I told him last week that I'm coming to see him pretty soon."
Borelli's sister Diane was a daily spectator at her brother's six month trial. Like her niece, she was leery about speaking to Gang Land since I had co-authored Murder Machine, a book that tells of many killings that Borelli committed over the years as a member of Gambino soldier Roy DeMeo's murderous crew. But she did, once assured that the focus of Gang Land's interest was her brother's trial, conviction and sentence, which was six years before the book I wrote with Gene Mustain was published in 1992.
Jurors told the New York Times they convicted Borelli and two co-defendants of specific auto-crime thefts because bills of lading recovered by the feds had a "coded word" or alias for them. "That's not much evidence," said Diane. "But even if it's true, and Henry did it, 10 years for each bill of lading is absurd; 150 years is just not fair," she added.
Borelli, though, was much more than a car thief. He was a member of a murderous mob crew headed by DeMeo in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1984, along with Mafia boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano and 22 others, he was indicted on racketeering charges that included 25 murders, and many other crimes. He was charged with six murders, including the slayings of two rival used-car dealers of the crime family's stolen car operation.
The crew, on orders from Castellano, according to FBI reports, turned on DeMeo and killed him in 1983.
Judge Kevin Duffy split the case up. The first trial involved Borelli, Castellano and eight others who were charged with five murders linked to the stolen car ring along with 23 separate counts of stealing hundreds of gas guzzlers that were shipped to oil rich Kuwait from 1977 to 1982. Castellano beat the rap when he was famously murdered during the trial. But Borelli and codefendant Ronald Ustica were found guilty of two killings and got life in prison for the murders. Not taking any chances, Duffy gave both men 10 years for each auto crime count. Ustica also got five years for his conspiracy conviction.
But there was a crucial difference in how the sentences were meted out: Borelli's were made consecutive to each other, resulting in a prison term of life plus 150 years. Ustica's auto-crime sentences were made concurrent — to be served at the same time as his life sentence. That didn't seem to matter much at the time. But it became a big deal for Ustica a year later when the car thief hit the jackpot after the murder convictions were reversed on appeal. Ustica was released from prison in 2003. He died in 2011.
Co-defendant Edward (Fast Eddie) Rendini also got lucky. Rendini was convicted of 16 auto-crime counts and also of being part of the overall conspiracy. Duffy gave him 10 years for each auto-theft count, and five for conspiracy. The judge made that sentence consecutive as well, for a total of 165 years. Duffy also recommended that Borelli and Fast Eddie, whom prosecutors charged with supplying guns that the DeMeo crew used in numerous killings, never be granted parole. Despite the judge's wishes, Rendini was inexplicably released in 2004.
A BOP spokeswoman declined to explain why Rendini, now 66, served less than 20 years of what was supposed to be a 165-year term. She also was mum as to why Borelli will have to make it to age 123 if he is to make it to his own release date, 2072. Neither Rendini nor his attorney could be reached.
"That's outrageous," said Maida's husband Vincent Rizzo, an air conditioner-heating unit mechanic who spent several hours with his wife on March 28 at the federal courthouse and delivered his wife's letter to Judge Preska's chambers himself after they finally got a clerk to accept it and time stamp it. "I wasn't going to leave without making sure it got to her," he said.
"There should be unity in sentencing, not disparity," said Joel Winograd, an attorney for a Borelli codefendant. "What's fair is fair. It doesn't seem fair for one person to get 150 years and someone else to get 10 or 20 years for the same crime. There's something radically wrong with that. The system of justice calls for equal justice under the law. Especially in sentencing."
At Borelli's trial, the jury acquitted two other indicted members of DeMeo's crew, Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter, of the auto-crimes charges but was unable to reach a verdict on their murder charges.
In 1988, both men went to trial on racketeering charges including 10 murders. But because Borelli was serving a 150-year sentence, prosecutors opted not to try him again. According to testimony, Borelli took part in six slayings, including the 1975 killing of Andrei Katz, whose dismembered remains were found in a dumpster outside a supermarket where his body was cut up, and the 1979 murder of crew member Chris Harvey Rosenberg. Testa and Senter were convicted of 10 murders and sentenced to life plus 20 years by trial judge Vincent Broderick.
But life sentences for crimes committed before 1987, according to BOP guidelines, are 30 years. All specific prison terms "max out" at two thirds for those inmates, and Testa and Senter, who are both 61, are slated to be released in 2032, at age 77, after serving about 43 years.
They still have a long way to go. But their situation is a lot better than Henry Borelli's. He has no shot of getting out. He would have been better off going to trial with Testa and Senter, being found guilty of six murders, and sentenced to life plus 20 years, rather than being convicted of 15 counts of auto-theft.
"That's crazy," said his son-in-law Vincent. "When I met Maida, she was 18, and her father was in prison. He's still there, and everyone else in his case is out. Rendini got out, Ustica got out. He should be out too."
