Junior Gotti Awaits His Fate

Jurors have begun deliberating the fate of John "Junior" Gotti, who is accused of engaging in racketeering while leading the Gambino crime family in the 1990s.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin told the jury it would be able to set its own schedule as it decided whether to convict Gotti of racketeering and ordering a beating that nearly killed the founder of the Guardian Angels.

The jury got the case late Wednesday afternoon and deliberated for about an hour. Deliberations were to continue Thursday.

One juror asked to be dismissed from the 12-member panel, and the judge replaced her with an alternate. The reason for the juror's request was not immediately disclosed.

The two-week trial has featured testimony from government witnesses including Curtis Sliwa, who survived a brutal 1992 attack, and former close associates of Gotti.

The government contends Gotti ordered Sliwa attacked as retaliation for rants on his radio talk show about Gotti's father, John Gotti, who died in 2002 while serving a life sentence for racketeering.

Gotti, 42, says he quit the mob and insists he had nothing to do with the attack.

Last September, another jury deadlocked on the racketeering charge, necessitating the retrial. Gotti could face 30 years in prison.