Posted on 07/11/2009 2:38:44 PM PDT by nickcarraway
DNA tests linked a reputed Genovese capo - along with 11 million other white men - to hairs found in a hat at the scene of a gangland rubout, a forensic scientist testified Thursday.
Michael (Mikey Cigars) Coppola went into hiding in 1996 to avoid giving a DNA sample. He remained a fugitive for more than a decade.
Coppola is on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court for racketeering and blowing away gangster John (Johnny Coca Cola) Lardiere outside the Red Bull Inn in New Jersey on Easter Sunday 1977.
The killer dropped a blue cap - likened by one police witness to the type worn by Steve Martin and Dan Ackroyd in their roles as "Two Wild and Crazy Guys" on "Saturday Night Live."
FBI forensic scientist Leslie McCurdy said 89% of all white men would have a different DNA profile from the person wearing the hat.
Defense lawyer Henry Mazurek pointed out that there are 100 million white men in the U.S.
"You would expect then that 11 million people who have the same profile match?" he asked.
"Yes, that's right," McCurdy said.
Coppola, 63, is bald now, but surveillance photos of him at the Company K social club in Hoboken show he had a full head of hair around the time of the killing.
Still Coppola will have to convince jurors that innocent men don't go on the lam and create a fictitious identity. When FBI agents captured Coppola outside his upper West Side hideout in 2007, his wallet contained a "Get out of jail free" card from the Monopoly board game.
Agents also seized a textbook titled, "The Methods of Attacking Scientific Evidence," from his studio apartment.
Gotta love those nicknames. Mikey Cigars, Joe Coca Cola, Vince the Chin, Sammy the Bull, Rahm the Thug...
Ping
Barry the Kenyan Rookie?? Don’t mess with those Chicago Mob guys.............
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