Defendant claims victim was hitman

Kim Smith

Tuesday, June 18, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

If mob boss John Gotti had been at the Stardust on Feb. 7, 2000, Anthony Cuccia Jr. said he would have "whacked" him and Phillip Greenspan.

Cuccia told Metro homicide detective James Vaccaro in a taped conversation that he felt no remorse for shooting Greenspan in a crowded sports book that day. In fact, he said, he wished Gotti, reputed mob member Nicky Corozzo and several associates could have been "whacked," too.

Cuccia's words were the last thing jurors heard on the first day of his trial Monday.

Cuccia, 60, is facing a single open murder charge in connection with Greenspan's death. If convicted of first-degree murder, Cuccia could receive a life sentence with or without parole.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens told jurors that Greenspan was just sitting in the sports book eating a bowl of chili that day when Cuccia walked up to him and killed him.

Cuccia, however, maintains that Greenspan was a mob hit man hired by the Gambino crime family to kill him. He simply shot him first, Cuccia told Vaccaro.

Gotti, who died of cancer last week at 61, was the leader of the Gambino crime family.

Monday's trial started with Cuccia making a last-minute decision to allow defense attorney Jay "Chip" Siegel to represent him.

Up until moments before jury selection began, Cuccia had insisted on representing himself because all of his other attorneys wanted to tell jurors he was delusional.

Siegel told jurors Cuccia's self-defense story is the only one that makes sense. He had no other reason to kill Greenspan, Siegel said.

Since he isn't contesting the fact that Cuccia shot Greenspan, Siegel didn't cross-examine many of the string of witnesses Owens put on the stand Monday.

One after the other, Stardust employees and patrons testified they saw Cuccia walk up to Greenspan and shoot him point-blank in the chest and then once in the back as Greenspan ran outside to die on the sidewalk.

They told jurors that Cuccia then calmly walked up to the sports book counter, put down the gun and loudly proclaim, "Don't worry. Don't worry. I'm done," or "Everybody stay calm."

Many said that when Cuccia was being questioned by police he seemed to find the event humorous. They said he was laughing.

Cuccia told Vaccaro that Gotti put a contract out on his life in 1981 after a DEA agent lied and identified Cuccia as a snitch. He said there were seven to eight attempts on his life on the East Coast and 15 to 20 attempts in Las Vegas.

He said he realized Greenspan was a hit man when he sat down next to him at the Stardust one day and carried on conversations with two other men sitting nearby.

"It don't take five minutes. He gets up off that chair and he goes to sit in the second row behind me all by himself. So I know all he's doing is (identifying) me to either that guy or the old man," Cuccia said.

Greenspan identified him to the men so they could kill him, Cuccia said.

Cuccia said he decided at that point he was tired of running for his life. One week later he waited for Greenspan to show up at the Stardust.

"I want to end this (expletive). And that's what I did," Cuccia said. "I says I'm gonna stop it right here and now. I sent the message back to Nick and that's when I walked over and hit him. I says 'Here, send this message back to Nicky,' bop, and I hit him."

Cuccia said he went to Metro, city marshals and federal marshals for help and everyone refused. He had no choice but to shoot Greenspan, he said, because Greenspan was either going to kill him or direct someone to kill him.

"I didn't see no gun. I didn't see nothing. Didn't care if he was stark, cold, naked and not have a gun. He was going. That was it," Cuccia said.

Owens was expected to wrap up his case this morning. Siegel said he wasn't sure how many witnesses Cuccia had arranged to testify on his behalf.