NEW YORK -- Pasquale "Pat" Conte, owner of Tapps Supermarkets, Woodside, N.Y., has pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder a construction contractor four years ago.
9, is expected to be sentenced to seven and a half years in prison at a hearing Sept. 14.
He reportedly entered the guilty plea in U.S. District Court here to avoid a trial at which his brother was expected to testify against him. The plea bargain enabled him to avoid a murder charge carrying a penalty of life in prison.
A trial against Conte ended in a hung jury last January.
During that trial witnesses testified that both Conte and his brother Anthony, as well as the victim, Louis DiBono, were members of the Mafia crime family headed by John Gotti.
