Hit record stored getting longer, informant tells Montreal Mafia homicide trial

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Dominico Scarfo, who is charged with first-degree murder in the 2016 homicides of Lorenzo Giordano and Rocco Sollecito, won’t present a defence.

Sûreté du Québec police investigate the scene around the Kia Sportage SUV with a broken passenger window, bottom right, in which 50-year-old Lorenzo Giordano was shot  and killed in Laval in 2016. Sûreté du Québec police investigate the scene around the Kia Sportage SUV with a broken passenger window, bottom right, in which 50-year-old Lorenzo Giordano was shot and killed in Laval in 2016. Photo by Dario Ayala /Montreal Gazette

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A Calabrian clan in the Montreal Mafia kept adding names to its hit list as it sought to eliminate its rival Sicilians five years ago, the informant in the murder trial of Dominico Scarfo said on Wednesday.

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Scarfo, 49, is charged with the first-degree murders of Lorenzo Giordano and Rocco Sollecito, two men described by the informant as holding the two highest positions in the Montreal Mafia when they were killed on different days in Laval during 2016.

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The informant, whose name cannot be published, said that when he was released from a federal penitentiary in April 2016, he was shown “a menu” on an encrypted BlackBerry device that included the names of people that Salvatore Scoppa and other leaders on the Calabrian side of the conflict wanted to have eliminated.

When the trial began, prosecutor Marie-Christine Godbout told the jury that Giordano and Sollecito were killed as part of an effort by Scoppa to eliminate many rivals during 2016. Scoppa, who was killed in 2019, is named as a co-conspirator in two conspiracy charges Scarfo also faces.

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Initially, the informant said, the list was composed of well-known leaders among the Sicilians in the Montreal Mafia. The informant admitted he was the gunman who killed Sollecito on May 27, 2016, and has alleged that Scarfo took part in the hit.

As he continued to work with the Calabrians, the informant said, people with less influence in the Mob were added to “the menu.” The informant rattled off six names of people he knew who were added to the list, including brothers Vincenzo and Giuseppe Falduto, who were killed on a farm in the rural town of St-Jude on June 30, 2016.

“When I got out of prison they had a certain list. Everybody knew who the guys were,” the informant said while being cross-examined by defence lawyer Luc Trempe. “Then they added Vinny and Joey (the Falduto brothers) and Moose and B.M. and Jedi. Then they added Charley Renda. There was always a perpetual motion of adding people.”

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Trempe asked the informant if he was made aware of the list of names by a low-level person tied to the Calabrians. That man, whose name cannot be published for the time being, is alleged to have been an accomplice in Giordano’s and Sollecito’s homicides. The informant concurred that the alleged accomplice was the person who informed him of who was on the list. But, the informant added, the names were later confirmed to him by Scoppa.

The informant said the alleged accomplice in the hits on Giordano and Sollecito also admitted to him that he turned against Scoppa and hired a hit man who ended up killing Scoppa at a hotel in Laval in May 2019.

Later in the day, Trempe announced he had no more questions for the informant, putting an end to a very difficult and complicated cross-examination that lasted several days.

The defence attorney also announced that Scarfo will not present a defence. This was after Godbout informed the jury that the Crown had closed its case.

Closing arguments in the trial will begin next week.

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  1. Dominico Scarfo is charged with the first-degree murders of Rocco Sollecito and Lorenzo Giordano.

    Montreal Mafia murder trial: Accused was warned his life was in danger

  2. Dominico Scarfo pleaded not guilty to all four charges during his trial at the Gouin courthouse on Jan. 25, 2022.

    Mafia leader’s girlfriend was covered in blood after he was shot, murder trial witnesses say

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