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Magistrate: Try Conspiracy Defendant With Others

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 6, 2009

TAMPA - A federal magistrate is recommending that a Tampa man charged with being part of a Gambino crime family conspiracy be tried along with other defendants accused in the conspiracy.

James V. Cadicamo was arrested in August along with four other men charged with participating in a vast racketeering conspiracy under the umbrella of the Gambino crime family. At the same time, John A. "Junior" Gotti was named in a separate, similar indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Tampa.

A federal judge granted a motion by Gotti to move his trial to New York. But the separate case against Cadicamo and the others continues in Tampa.

Cadicamo asked that he be tried separate from the others. At least three of his co-defendants, he argued, are accused of murder, while two are facing drug counts. Cadicamo is accused of neither. Trying the defendants together, he contends, will result in unfair prejudice against him.

U.S. Magistrate Thomas Wilson dismissed that argument.

"In the first place, the government had indicated that it will present evidence at trial that the defendant engaged in multiple acts of violence, including beating a man with a baseball bat and the attempted murder/beating of a government witness," Wilson wrote. "The presentation of evidence that the defendant engaged in violent crime undermines any contention of compelling prejudice."

Moreover, Wilson added, "The defendant has not shown that, because the co-conspirators allegedly engaged in violent crimes, a jury could not follow the court's instructions to evaluate independently the evidence against each defendant regarding each of the charges."

The final decision on whether to grant Cadicamo a separate trial rests with U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday, who referred the motion to Wilson for a recommendation.

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