Joseph Lombardo - Conviction and Sentencing

Conviction and Sentencing

On September 10, 2007, Lombardo was found guilty of racketeering, extortion, and loan sharking. On September 27, 2007, the same jury found Lombardo guilty of the 1974 Seifert murder. Lombardo continually professed his innocence, telling Zagel at a sentencing hearing on February 2, 2009 that "I was not given a fair trial and now I suppose the court is going to sentence me to life in prison for something I did not do. I did not kill Daniel Seifert and also I did not have anything to do with it."

On February 2, 2009, Zagel sentenced Lombardo, seated in a wheelchair and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, to life in prison for the convictions. "Mr. Lombardo, you are not like the toxic creature I've seen forming in one of your co-defendants," Zagel told Lombardo, referring to Chicago Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese, Sr., whom Zagel had sentenced to life in prison the previous week. "You evidence some balance and judgment and based on the evidence before me, some ability to charm people. In the end, we are judged by our actions and not on our wit or our smiles....In cases like these, the things that matter most are the worst things we do. The worst things you have done are terrible, and I see no regret in you. I think you felt you were engaged in a game in which you drew satisfaction in how you played the game....It wasn't a game," and it involved, "the destruction of a human life." Judge Zagel agreed with federal prosecutor T. Markus Funk, and sentenced Lombardo to life.