Skip to Main Content Crime Prosecutors stated Fotios “Freddy” Geas utilized a lock connected to a belt to consistently strike the 89-year-old Bulger in the head hours after he came to the struggling U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton, from another lockup in Florida in October 2018.
Fotios “Freddy” Geas stands for a court case in his defense in the Al Bruno murder case, April 14, 2009, in Springfield, Mass. Don Treeger/ The Republican through AP, File
By JOHN RABY, Associated Press
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP)– A previous Mafia hit man currently serving life in jail was sentenced to 25 years Friday in the 2018 deadly jail bludgeoning of well-known Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.
District attorneys stated Fotios “Freddy” Geas utilized a lock connected to a belt to consistently strike the 89-year-old Bulger in the head hours after he reached the distressed U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton, from another lockup in Florida in October 2018. Defense lawyer challenged that characterization Friday, stating Geas struck Bulger with his fist.
The Justice Department stated in 2015 that it would not look for the capital punishment versus Geas in Bulger's killing.
The sentences– 15 years for voluntary murder and ten years for attack leading to major physical injury– will be served consecutively with each other also to the present life term for Geas.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh accepted a sentencing suggestion from district attorneys that was longer than federal government standards. Kleeh stated he discovered the result to be “reasonable, affordable and simply.” The judge dismissed more severe charges that consisted of murder and conspiracy to devote first-degree murder, which each brought optimal charges of life in jail.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Flower stated the sentence suggestion was based in part on the ages of Bulger and Geas, 57.
“Mr. Geas is not truly going to have a chance to step outside,” Flower stated. “That is where he's going to invest the rest of his days.”
Geas decreased to make a declaration in court prior to sentencing.
Bulger, who ran the mostly Irish gang in Boston in the 1970s and '80s, likewise acted as an FBI informant who snitched his gang's primary competitor, according to the bureau. Bulger highly rejected ever being a federal government informant.
Bulger turned into one of the country's most desired fugitives after getting away Boston in 1994 thanks to an idea from his FBI handler that he will be arraigned. He was recorded at age 81 after more than 16 years on the run and founded guilty in 2013 in 11 killings and lots of other organized crime criminal activities.
Another Hazelton detainee, Massachusetts gangster Paul J. DeCologero, was sentenced to more than 4 years in jail in August on an attack charge in Bulger's killing. District attorneys stated he functioned as a lookout for Geas. A 3rd prisoner, Sean McKinnon, pleaded guilty in June to lying to FBI unique representatives.
