Closing Arguments In Gotti Jr. Trial

As John Gotti Jr.'s retrial on racketeering charges neared an end, the late John Gotti Sr.'s picture stared at the jury from a large video screen.

Prosecutors posted the elder Gotti's familiar face during closing arguments Tuesday and provided the jury with a history lesson about his brutal reign atop the Gambino crime family.

Defense attorney Charles Carnesi, though, told the federal jury to remember this case was about the alleged sins of the son - not his father.

"I want everybody to remember who the defendant is," Carnesi said. "John Gotti Sr. was arrested, tried and convicted by a different jury 14 or 15 years ago."

The 42-year-old Gotti is accused of ordering up two attacks on Guardian Angels founder-turned-radio host Curtis Sliwa in 1992, allegedly as payback for insulting comments made on the air about Gotti's father. In the second attack, a botched kidnapping, Sliwa was shot and almost killed, authorities said.

Sliwa meanwhile is fuming over Monday's testimony at the trial, in which his radio talk show co-host, attorney Ron Kuby, said Junior Gotti asked him in 1998 to pass a note to the government that he was ready to quit the Mafia and wanted to cut a deal.

The New York Post says Sliwa calls the testimony "an act of betrayal" which, if believed by jurors, could help lead to a not guilty verdict for Gotti Jr.

Kuby, reports the Post, says he testified under subpoena and had no choice other than to tell the truth about the incident.

"Sometimes," retorted Kuby in on-air byplay with Sliwa, "it's not about you."

In closing arguments Tuesday, assistant U.S. Attorney Victor Hou told the jury that Gotti felt "entitled by his name, his rank, his post, and yes - his father - to exercise his unbridled authority."

"Hold him responsible, but not because his name is Gotti," the prosecutor said later.

Both sides played video footage of the elder Gotti and his son meeting while the father was incarcerated for his 1992 racketeering conviction. Gotti Sr. died behind bars a decade later.

The defense showed the elder Gotti in a 1999 jailhouse meeting with his son where John Jr. explains why it's time to quit the mob. The younger Gotti was under indictment, and later pleaded guilty to bribery, extortion and other charges.

"You know what they're gonna do, if they got away with doing this with me," Gotti tells his father. "My imbecile brother is going to be next, and my son John whose name is John Gotti is going to be next, and whoever."

The defense rested after prosecutors finished their cross-examination of Gotti's younger brother Peter. He testified that his older brother had loaned him $170,000 for a pair of failed businesses but said he never asked the source of his income.

Gotti sat with his head down and hands clasped, occasionally looking up at surveillance shots of mob cohorts. The defense will wrap up its arguments on Wednesday, with jury deliberations to follow, perhaps not until Thursday morning.

His lawyers insist Gotti is out of the mob, and was not involved in the Sliwa shooting.

The current case was brought last year, bringing up allegations not covered by his 1999 plea bargain. A Manhattan jury was deadlocked in the case last September, leading to the retrial. If convicted, Gotti faces up to 30 years in prison.