Gambino Crime Family Associate Gennaro Bruno Pleads Guilty To 2002 Murder Of Martin Bosshart

The U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, released the below information:

Earlier today, Gennaro “Jerry” Bruno, an associate of the Gambino organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (the “Gambino crime family”) pleaded guilty at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, NY, to racketeering and admitted to murdering Martin Bosshart on January 2, 2002 and conspiring to prevent testimony in a grand jury investigation into the Bosshart murder.  Today’s plea took place before United States District Judge William F. Kuntz, II, who accepted Bruno’s plea.  Pursuant to Bruno’s plea agreement with the government, Bruno will be sentenced to 21 years in prison.  Sentencing is scheduled for May 6, 2016.

The plea was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Diego Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI).  For their outstanding investigative work and assistance in this case, Mr. Capers extended his grateful appreciation to the FBI, the New York City Police Department, the Queens County District Attorney, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

According to court filings and facts presented during the plea proceeding, Bruno became an associate in the Corozzo Faction of the Gambino crime family by approximately 2000, after proving himself over a number of years as a member of a violent gang called the “Young Guns.”  Over the next 14 years, Bruno engaged in numerous crimes with and on behalf of a faction of the Gambino crime family aligned with Joseph “JoJo” Corozzo, a powerful Gambino member who had risen to become the consigliere of the family.  Bruno and other Gambino crime family members and associates moved large quantities of high-potency marijuana from Canada into the New York City area.  In 2001, Bruno’s criminal associate Martin Bosshart began making efforts to exclude one of Bruno’s coconspirators from the marijuana importation operation.  In an effort to prevent Bosshart from doing so, Bruno plotted with other Gambino crime family members and associates to murder Bosshart.  On the night of January 2, 2002, Bruno lured Bosshart to an isolated location in Queens, NY.  There, Bruno shot Bosshart in the back of the head at point-blank range, killing him immediately.  The body of Martin Bosshart, who was 30 years old at the time, was recovered at the scene.

Thereafter, Bruno evaded justice for years and conspired with other Gambino associates to obstruct an official grand jury investigation into the Bosshart murder, all the while continuing to participate in the core money-making activities of the Gambino crime family, including drug trafficking and extortion.  As part of the alleged pattern of racketeering, Bruno, among other things, used his position in the Gambino crime family to extract extortionate payments from the owner of a waste carting company in Queens, NY.  Bruno was arrested in Las Vegas on October 28, 2014, and removed to the Eastern District of New York to face the charges against him.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys M. Kristin Mace, Nadia Shihata, and Mathew Miller.

The Defendant:

GENNARO BRUNO, a/k/a “Jerry”
Age: 43
Las Vegas, Nevada

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 14-CR-556 (WFK)