Former federal agent who aided organized-crime figure is sentenced to 10 years in prison
A former federal agent was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison for his role in the mob-related activities of one of the city’s most notorious gangsters.
After a jury deliberated for about eight hours yesterday before returning its verdict, David C. Jones, 28, entered the courtroom yesterday with a broad grin and little expression in his eyes as he listened intently as Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian K. Delaney read a statement in which he apologized for the role he played in the murder of Charles “Cadillac” Rastelli, in a deal brokered by U.S. District Judge Edward Korman.
Jones also apologized for the role he played in the shooting death of FBI informant William “Whitey” Bulger, the indictment said. When Delaney concluded his plea, the two agents embraced.
Jones, dressed casually and sporting a black ponytail, smiled broadly as the jury took its seats. He then stood up, walked into the courtroom, shook the hand of each member of the jury, bowed and thanked the judge.
Rastelli had lived alone in a converted house at 1611 Sixth St. for the last few years and was known to have lived there with his grandmother, his sister and brother.
He was found dead in his closet, shot three times, one of the bullets penetrating his heart, on June 18, 1986.
Bulger, who headed the Winter Hill Gang, a feared criminal organization in South Boston and who had been one of the FBI’s most important informants, was slain in November 2011.
The government had charged Jones and other former members of the Winter Hill Gang with Rastelli’s murder, but his sentencing hearing was continued several times.
The Rastelli killing was particularly egregious, Jones’ attorney, Michael L. McQuinn, said in court yesterday. He said the murder was an “incredibly evil act.”
Jones, who worked in the FBI’s organized crime unit and who was known to be a close associate of Bulger’s, was a witness who had “no qualms” about testifying against the gangster who was his “best friend.”
As a gang member who was also a former associate of Bulger’s, Jones had once made a deal with federal prosecutors in
