N.Y. mob son Gotti eludes conviction for fourth time

Attorney for John ''Junior'' Gotti, Charles Carnesi, speaks to the media outside the U.S. Federal Court in New York August 5, 2008.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The trial of John "Junior" Gotti on murder and racketeering charges ended in a mistrial on Tuesday, allowing the prominent mob figure to elude conviction in his fourth racketeering trial in five years.

John A. Gotti, 45, the son of late notorious Gambino crime family boss John J. Gotti, was charged with ordering or taking part in the drug-related killings of two men in 1988 and 1991 and racketeering conspiracy that included murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion and drug dealing.

U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel declared a mistrial after the jury said it was unable to reach a verdict on any of the charges.

Gotti's three previous trials in 2005 and 2006 on similar charges all ended in hung juries after his lawyer said Gotti was once a high-ranking member of the Gambinos but quit the mob 10 years ago.

Gotti bowed his head and rubbed his eyes upon hearing the judge declare a fourth mistrial, while family members cheered and cried in the courtroom's gallery.

Prosecutors say Gotti, nicknamed Junior, took control as street boss of the Gambinos from his father, who was known as the "Teflon Don" for his many years of evading criminal conviction.

John J. Gotti died in prison in 2002 a decade after he was convicted of racketeering.

Prosecutors argued during the trial Gotti had profited millions from a cocaine trafficking network and disputed he could have quit mob life because he would have had to turn against hundreds of mobsters.

They portrayed Gotti as a cold, vicious thug who, after stabbing a man to death in a bar in 1983, popped back into the bar's entrance while the victim was dying and in a Porky Pig imitation said, "Th-th-th-that's all folks," local media reported.

But Gotti's defense lawyer, Charles Carnesi, maintained the same unusual defense Gotti had used to win three previous mistrials -- that he had left organized crime after he pleaded guilty to separate racketeering charges in 1999.

The two-month trial featured colorful testimony from former members of the Gambinos -- one of New York's five organized crime families -- dismissals of jurors and outbursts from Gotti and members of his family.

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan, editing by Michelle Nichols and Cynthia Osterman)