Joseph Petrucelli had pleaded guilty in January to the relatively minor federal charge of gambling, and he probably never would have been sentenced to prison. Not even prosecutors were asking for a prison term for the reputed Mafia associate.
But then followed an unlikely, unfortunate series of events, and on Wednesday the 27-year-old Petrucelli found himself in a different setting at his sentencing hearing in federal court in Boston, one that would lead a judge to rethink the whole situation.
In June, five months after Petrucelli had pleaded guilty but before he could be sentenced, the US Postal Service intercepted a package it believed was related to a Jamaican lottery scam. In a phone call, the sender gave investigators permission to open it. Inside, they found $1,462 that the sender hesitantly acknowledged was debts that were owed to Petrucelli, for losses he incurred on an Internet gambling site.
US District Judge Allison Burroughs was flabbergasted. The debt was only a fraction of the proceeds that Petrucelli and a partner, John Evans, had earned in their heyday running a gambling racket on the North Shore. And in totality, Petrucelli’s offenses were miniscule compared with those of other defendants who had been ensnared in the same federal investigation of the New England Mafia, including former acting boss Anthony Spagnolo, who is serving close to two years for extortion.
Spagnolo and Pryce Quintina, a top soldier, both longtime criminals in their 70s, had been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for extortion; Louis L. DiNunzio, the son of former Mafia don Anthony DiNunzio, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for trafficking marijuana. Two other Mafia associates were sentenced to more than a year for drug dealing.
Here was Petrucelli, of Winthrop, who had no criminal history. But Burroughs was astounded.
“This is the first defendant I’ve ever had, who went out and completed the exact same crime pending sentence,’’ the judge said from the bench Wednesday, questioning whether anything but a prison term could deter him from future crimes.
“Why should I have any confidence that without some more meaningful punishment, he won’t go back at it again?’’ Burroughs asked.
Assistant US Attorney Timothy Moran, who initially recommended probation for Petrucelli, was now asking that he serve a month in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, the first six months under home confinement.
“It shows a failure to obey with the court order,’’ Moran said.
Petrucelli seemed apologetic, and was tearful. He grew emotional as he and his lawyer described how he grew up in a culture where gambling was ubiquitous, even if it was wrong. They never turned to violence, though. Petrucelli said the person he hurt the worst was his mother, nearing her 70s, who had to return to work because he had to forfeit more than $30,000. His stepfather is ill. He has to care for him.
“I really hope you can consider that, but I am sorry,’’ he said, growing more tearful.
Burroughs paused. She wanted to punish Petrucelli, she said. But in a smart way. She also wanted him to return to work. “Otherwise, you are going to go right back to gambling,’’ she said.
And then the judge handed out the sentence, one not typically seen in the federal court in Boston: Petrucelli will have to spend a weekend in prison, reporting in at 9 a.m. Friday, September 9. He will be released the following Monday morning, when the US Marshals bring prisoners back to the courthouse. He must then serve six months of home confinement and three years of probation, under conditions, which include that he stay away from gambling.
“I’m giving you a break here, but I hope I have been crystal clear,’’ the judge said. “I make you a promise, if you violate any of these conditions, you will go to prison.’’
Milton J. Valencia can be reached at milton.valencia@ globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @miltonvalencia.
