Bensonhurst Murder Trial: 1990

The prosecution had difficulty in collecting evidence, since most of those involved in the case refused to testify against each other. Although urged to use a theory of a crime that all in the gang were "acting in concert," jurors only applied that theory to one of the defendants. Attorney Jacob Evseroff, who represented Charles Stressler, one member of the gang, commented that "nobody was ever shot with a baseball bat." That line of thinking appeared to impress two juries, which rejected the acting-in-concert argument for manslaughter against the other members of the gang.

Defense attorney Stephen Murphy argued that Keith Mondello was simply "a jerk" taunted into action by Gina Feliciano and should not be made a victim of racial politics and hysteria. Nevertheless, it was clear that Mondello had organized the group that marched out from the schoolyard to attack Yusuf Hawkins. Even the evidence against Fama was shaky. He had reportedly told two other prison inmates that he had fired the gun. One of the gang, Frankie Tighe, testified that he saw Fama fire the gun, but he later recanted his testimony.

Both the jury hearing Fama's case and the one hearing Mondello's case were racially mixed. The judge in both cases, Thaddeus Owens, was black. Each jury deliberated 11 days.

On May 17, 1990, Joey Fama's jury found him guilty of "depraved indifference" to human life, and therefore guilty of murder, since it had been proven that he was in the crowd that attacked Hawkins. Judge Owens had instructed the jury that if depraved indifference could be proven, a guilty verdict could be returned. Such a decision appeared to imply that all in the gang were guilty, even if only one had fired the shot. Furthermore, the jury did not have to believe, by this logic, that Fama had fired the gun. Members of the press and public assumed that this decision paved the way for the acting-in-concert theory to lead to a group of manslaughter convictions. The next day, a separate jury found the ringleader of the gang, Keith Mondello, guilty of riot, menacing, discrimination, and possession of a weapon. However, Mondello was acquitted of manslaughter charges. Judge Owens imposed sentence on June 11, 1990.

Both Fama and Mondello appealed their sentences. Mondello's sentence was modified on March 1, 1993, allowing concurrent service of the terms for imprisonment with the terms for riot as the crime was essentially the same. Fama's sentence and judgment were affirmed on February 5, 1995, in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York.

John Vento, who had provided evidence against Fama, which he later recanted, was sentenced to four years on lesser charges. Steven Curreri and James Patino were acquitted of all charges; Joseph Serrano was given community service on a weapons charge; Charles Stressler was acquitted after a mistrial was declared in his first trial.