A mob turncoat was on the verge of tears yesterday as he described learning about the slayings of a close pal and a second man – and fingered a reputed Gambino soldier for confessing to the double murder.
In his witness-stand debut, Andrew DiDonato, 39, testified that he was initially suspected of killing his friend Robert Arena and Thomas Meranga and thought he might be in danger – but accused Gambino hit man Michael Yannotti told him not to worry.
“With something like that being done so close to me, I had to start to evaluate dangers to myself,” DiDonato testified at the John “Junior” Gotti trial.
He said Yannotti told him, “If anybody should worry it would be me, I’m the guilty one here. They’re going to come to me first. They’re only going to come to you to clean house.”
The choked-up turncoat said Arena, a Luchese crime family associate, was targeted because he was suspected of killing a Gambino associate and muscling in on a rival crew’s turf in a festering dispute between the two families.
Arena and Meranga – a pal who prosecutors say was in the wrong place at the wrong time – were killed when a hail of 40 bullets were fired into their car in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, in January 1996.
Yannotti’s pager turned up at the scene.
DiDonato said reputed Gambino leader Nicholas Corozzo ordered him to attend Arena’s funeral with the instructions, “We’re denying this to the fullest.”
Yannotti – who is charged with two murders and two attempted murders, including the shooting of radio host Curtis Sliwa – is standing trial with Gotti and a third co-defendant, Louis Mariani, in Manhattan federal court.
DiDonato also ran through a litany of his own crimes, including shootings, bank robberies, car theft and fraud.
He told how he and some pals accidentally stole a car that belonged to the nephew of then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano, but soon realized their mistake.
“We returned the car,” DiDonato said. “We got a basket of fruit. We were told that [Paul Castellano] owed us a favor down the line.”
In particularly chilling testimony, DiDonato said he impulsively shot a man while standing “within inches” of him because he had given a car to the turncoat’s wife.
“I didn’t want my wife taking favors from other men,” he said.
In a highly unusual ruling released yesterday, Judge Shira Scheindlin issued a gag order to stop all parties – including Gotti – from making public statements about the case outside of the courtroom.
The one exception is Sliwa, who can continue to rant about the case on his radio show – but not in interviews.
QUOTE
‘With something like that being done so close to me, I had to start to evaluate dangers to myself.’
– Testimony of mob turncoat Andrew DiDonato
