SOUTHLAND : Reputed Crime Figure Convicted
- Share via
An alleged member of the Milano crime family was convicted today of trying to kill the owner of a topless nightclub in a scheme to take control of the business.
After one day of deliberations, a Superior Court jury in Santa Ana voted 12 to 0 to convict Michael Rizzitello of attempted murder and mayhem in the May, 1987, shooting that left William Carroll blind.
Rizzitello, 62, is reputed to be a top lieutenant in the Los Angeles-based Milano crime family, state prosecutors said.
Late last year, an associate, Joseph Grosso, was also convicted of participating in the shooting in Carroll’s car inside a Costa Mesa parking garage.
Prosecutors argued that Rizzitello fired three shots into the back of Carroll’s head while Grosso held down his legs in the front seat.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Dr. Vanessa J. Díaz, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.
