A Gambino soldier nearing the end of his 20 year sentence fears he’s about to die from coronavirus.
John Matera, who lured a suspected snitch to a deadly ambush at the Staten Island strip club Scarlet’s in 1998, is suffering from COVID-19 at FCI Danbury in Connecticut, his attorney wrote Monday. The ailing 49-year-old gangster seeks immediate release into home confinement, ending his sentence roughly three years early. He pleaded guilty in 2004.
“It’s so crazy here no one is here and these people are treating us like we did some thing wrong, the dr dont come to see us and people are sick. were on top of each other, the laundry is all screwed up, its a mess here,” Matera wrote his lawyer Seth Ginsberg.
“hey buddy and not to be crazy but im sick as a dog i have every sympton ,, its in here like crazy<< mt man i dont want to die<:) 21 years and a cold kills me, what a shmuck<< ok let me know,. no one is doing anything here cant even see no one dr are gone, they have social workers acting like dr<< and there treating us like we did some thing wrong< well seth, thank u for what ever u can do i know were in a battle and i know ill lose, i just hope to get out of here,, one day<< ok thank u,, my fever is burning up,, head is pounding, back is killing me tired like i been up for weeks,” Matera wrote April 1.
The gangster, who has suffered from kidney infections, tested positive for coronavirus in the last five days and is now in Special Housing, which is often likened to solitary confinement, according to papers. Attorney General William Barr singled out FCI Danbury on Friday as one of three facilities in the Bureau of Prisons system experiencing “significant levels of infection.” Seven staff and 21 inmates at the lockup have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the agency.
Barr ordered the BOP to begin expediting appropriate inmate requests for home confinement. But Matera’s lawyer said he couldn’t wait for the overwhelmed facility to process his application and asked Manhattan Federal Judge Jesse Furman to order his immediate release.
