Executive describes threat made by Panaro

Friday, April 30, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

An electrical-supply company executive told jurors today he didn't even know Robert Panaro before that day in 1997 when Panaro clutched him by the throat and threatened his life.

David Graff told the U.S. District Court jury that Panaro was one of four men who met him in the Topper's Lounge parking lot to tell him that his company, Tri State Electric Inc., must stop competing with Silver State Electric Supply, owned by Panaro's son.

"Then he grabbed me by the throat and pushed me against the wall and said, 'You are screwing around with my son's business and I'm not going to stand for it,' or something to that effect," Graff said.

Graff said Panaro slapped him in the face at least three times and threatened to kill Graff and his family and the family of another Tri State employee if the business did not stop competing.

Panaro is charged with extortion in connection with the 1997 incident.

He and Stephen Cino, reputed members of a Buffalo crime family, are on trial this week on various charges related to organized crime activities and the 1997 execution of reputed Chicago mobster Herbert Blitzstein.

Cino has not been linked to the Graff threat.

Authorities have said mob associates Antone Davi and Richard Friedman shot Blitzstein in the head three times, shortly after he entered his townhouse on Jan. 6, 1997.

Hours earlier, court documents say, Los Angeles mob affiliates Peter Caruso and Anthony DeLulio broke into Blitzstein's home to steal valuables that included jewelry and money.

Earlier this month, Davi pleaded guilty to supplying Friedman the gun for the shooting. He will testify when Friedman is tried for that shooting later this summer.

Less than an hour before this week's trial was to begin, DeLulio pleaded guilty to a variety of charges, including one linking him to the burglary, court records say.

Defense attorneys spent most of Thursday punching holes in the testimony and character of Joseph DeLuca, Blitzstein's former business partner who in 1997 pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and participating in the murder plot.

In questioning DeLuca, they repeatedly referred to Blitzstein as "your friend Herbie," as if to remind jurors that DeLuca pleaded guilty to helping murder a man he once considered his closest friend.

Panaro's attorney John Fadgen, asked how DeLuca learned about the loan-sharking business. DeLuca told jurors that when he was younger, he collected interest payments or "juice" from people who borrowed money from his father, a mob associate back East.

He said he knew how the loan operation worked before he met Blitzstein and opened an auto repair business with him. Blitzstein used cash collected through the repair shop to start the high-interest loan business, the profits from which he and DeLuca shared.

The pair rented their shop space from Panaro, whose auto sales business was in the front. But Panaro only leased the space as a favor to Blitzstein, Fadgen said. He never wanted anything to do with DeLuca's enterprise.

"(Panaro) could have taken a piece of your business there if he wanted to, couldn't he?" Fadgen asked DeLuca. "But he didn't."

A couple of months after the burglary and murder, Panaro told DeLuca he wasn't interested in splitting the profits gained from those transactions, Fadgen said.

"(Panaro) wanted to wash his hands of the whole thing, didn't he? He said he just wanted to buy and sell cars," Fadgen said. "He also told you that, 'Whatever it is that was his (Blitzstein's), I'm out of it.' "

DeLuca agreed.

T. Louis Palazzo, Cino's attorney, painted his client's relationship to DeLuca and Blitzstein as a casual one, not a business one.

Cino reportedly was one of two men who brought DeLuca a 1994 Cadillac from Los Angeles, for which DeLuca unsuccessfully tried to obtain a fraudulent title. But in answering Palazzo's questions, DeLuca admitted he never saw who dropped off the car. He relied only on what he was told.

When it came time for money to change hands, the cash went to another man, whom Cino accompanied to the repair shop. DeLuca said he never physically handed Cino any money.

Both attorneys have pointed out that in the tape of the Jan. 4, 1997, discussion in which DeLuca, Caruso, Branco, Cino and Panaro planned the burglary and takeover, Cino and Panaro said they didn't want Blitzstein killed.

"Mr. Cino said, 'We don't want to be involved in that kind of stuff,' " Palazzo said, reading from the tape transcript.

Testimony is to continue next week in the trial that is expected to last three more weeks.