87-Year Old Mobster To Be Sentenced In Bombing Plot
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An 87-year-old organized crime figure will be sentenced this morning for his conviction in the bombing of a video poker company.
As WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports, Sam Volpendesto faces a minimum sentence of 35 years. Given that he is 87, Volpendesto's attorney says that amounts to a life sentence.
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Volpendesto, the former owner of a Cicero strip club, was a co-defendant with Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno, who was convicted in December 2010 and faces sentencing next month.
They were found guilty of bombing the Berwyn offices of C&S Coin Operated Amusements Inc. in February 2003.
The bombing, which destroyed the offices, was meant as a message to the company to stop horning in on a profitable mob business in Chicago's western suburbs, prosecutors said at the time.
During his trial, Volpendesto was heard in FBI wiretap conversations, seeming to brag about watching another organized crime figure put a person through a meat grinder.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman was supposed to sentence Volpendesto last week. But he agreed to a defense request for more time to explain sentencing procedures to Volpendesto.
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