3 men charged in Whitey Bulger’s prison killing have plea deals, prosecutors say

By way of ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and JOHN RABY Related Press

WASHINGTON – 3 males charged within the 2018 jail killing of infamous Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger have reached plea offer with prosecutors, in line with courtroom papers filed Monday. 

The plea offer for Fotios “Freddy” Geas, Paul J. DeCologero and Sean McKinnon had been disclosed just about six years nearest the 89-year-old gangster was once overwhelmed to loss of life in his cellular at a bothered West Virginia jail. 

Geas, a onetime Mafia hitman, and DeCologero, a Massachusetts gangster, had been accused of again and again hitting Bulger within the head past McKinnon served as a lookout. 

DeCologero advised an inmate eyewitness that Bulger was once a “snitch” and that once he got here into their unit, they deliberate to execute him. DeCologero additionally advised an inmate that he and Geas worn a belt with a lock connected to it to bludgeon Bulger to loss of life, prosecutors stated. 

Geas and DeCologero had been recognized as suspects in a while nearest Bulger’s loss of life, however they remained uncharged for years because the investigation dragged on. 

Prosecutors in West Virginia federal courtroom requested the courtroom to time table hearings for the boys to modify their not-guilty pleas and to be sentenced, despite the fact that they didn’t lend additional information about the plea words, that have now not been filed in courtroom. 

Belinda Haynie, an lawyer for Geas, declined to remark Monday. Legal professionals for the alternative two defendants didn’t in an instant reply to demands of remark from The Related Press. 

The Justice Segment stated ultimate 12 months that it could would now not search the loss of life sentence for Geas and DeCologero, who had been charged with homicide. All 3 males had been charged with conspiracy to dedicate first-degree homicide, which carries as much as a past sentence. McKinnon was once additionally charged with making fake statements to a federal agent. 

Bulger, who ran the in large part Irish mob in Boston within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, served as an FBI informant who ratted at the major rival to his gang. He turned into one of the crucial people’s most-wanted fugitives nearest absconding Boston in 1994 due to a tip from his FBI handler that he was once about to be indicted. He was once captured on the day of 81 nearest greater than 16 years at the run. 

In 2013, he was once convicted in a fibre of eleven killings and dozens of alternative gangland crimes, lots of them dedicated past he was once stated to be an FBI informant. 

Bulger was once killed simply hours nearest he was once transferred from a Florida lockup to USP Hazelton in West Virginia and positioned within the normal community. Bulger’s switch to Hazelton, the place staff had already been sounding the alarm about violence and understaffing, and his placement within the normal community in lieu of extra protecting housing was once extensively criticized via mavens nearest his killing. 

A Justice Segment inspector normal investigation present in 2022 that his killing was once the results of a couple of layers of control screw ups, frequent incompetence and incorrect insurance policies on the Bureau of Prisons. The inspector normal discovered disagree proof of “malicious intent” via any bureau staff, however stated a sequence of bureaucratic blunders left Bulger on the liniency of rival gangsters in the back of bars. 

DeCologero, who was once in an arranged crime gang led via his uncle in Massachusetts, was once convicted of shopping for heroin that was once worn to aim to execute a youth woman his uncle needed useless as a result of he feared she would betray the workforce to police. The heroin didn’t execute her, so every other guy needful her neck, dismembered her and buried her left-overs within the logs, courtroom data say. 

Geas was once a near assistant of the Mafia and acted as an enforcer, however was once now not an reliable “made” member as a result of he’s Greek, now not Italian. He and his brother had been sentenced to past in jail in 2011 for his or her roles in different violent crimes, together with the 2003 killing of Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, a Genovese crime crowd boss in Springfield, Massachusetts. Every other mobster ordered Bruno’s killing as a result of he was once dissatisfied he had talked to the FBI, prosecutors stated. 

McKinnon were on federal supervised reduce nearest serving jail year for stealing weapons from a firearms broker when he was once arrested on fees in Bulger’s killing.

Extra from CBS Information