Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino leaves Manhattan federal court after he was sentenced Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, to two years in prison on an illegal gambling charge. Merlino chuckled as he remarked that President Donald Trump was right to suggest that criminals who become government cooperators or so-called "flippers" perhaps should be outlawed. 
 
 What to Know A notorious Philadelphia mob boss, Joseph Merlino, sentenced to two years in prison for illegal betting quipped outside court Wednesday. 
 
 Judge Richard J. Sullivan sentenced Merlino to the maximum two-year term, though his plea deal called for him to get as little as 10 months. 
 
 Merlino must report to prison in 45 days. 
 
 A notorious Philadelphia mob boss sentenced to two years in prison for illegal betting quipped outside court Wednesday that President Donald Trump was right to suggest cooperators or flippers should be outlawed. 
 
 Smoking a cigarette, Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino chuckled when he made the comment as he walked away from Manhattan federal court. 
 
 Trump said during a "Fox & Friends" interview last summer that flippers who cooperate with prosecutors to get a reduced sentence "almost ought to be illegal." Special counsel Robert Mueller has relied on numerous cooperators in his probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. 
 
 Merlino, 56, agreed to plead guilty in April so he could avoid a retrial in a racketeering case that ended with a hung jury in February. 
 
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 At that trial, Merlino's defense attorney, Edwin Jacobs, told jurors that Merlino was framed by compromised turncoat mobsters seeking leniency for their crimes. 
 
 On Wednesday, Jacobs asked that his client be permitted to serve one half of any sentence on home confinement and be given credit for four months he spent in prison after a judge revoked his supervised relief in 2014. 
 
 Jacobs said there was an "element of urban myth" to the description of who his client is and what he has done. 
 
 Judge Richard J. Sullivan sentenced Merlino to the maximum two-year term, though Merlino's plea deal called for him to get as little as 10 months in prison. 
 
 The judge said evidence showed Merlino is no longer the organized crime boss in Philadelphia that he once was. 
 
 But that evidence also proved Merlino was "happy to assume a role where you took tributes from people" and resumed other benefits of organized crime after moving to Florida, where he ran an upscale Italian restaurant called Merlino's in Boca Raton, according to the judge. It has since closed. 
 
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 Merlino was arrested in 2016 with four others in a crackdown on an East Coast syndicate that prosecutors say committed crimes including extortion, loan-sharking, casino-style gambling, sports gambling, credit card fraud and health care fraud. 
 
 Merlino once controlled remnants of a Philadelphia-South Jersey organized crime family that was decimated by a bloody civil war in the 1980s and 1990s. Federal authorities say he was frequently targeted by murder plots after rivals put a $500,000 murder contract on his head. 
 
 In 2001, a jury acquitted Merlino and six co-defendants of three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder that could have resulted in a life sentence. He was convicted of lesser racketeering charges and served 12 years in prison before his 2011 release. 
 
 During the sentencing Wednesday, one of Merlino's supporters grumbled profanities, catching the attention of Sullivan, who summoned U.S. marshals. 
 
 "Shame on you," the judge told the man, who apologized and left the room. 
 
 After announcing the sentence, Sullivan told Merlino: "Mr. Merlino. Enough. Let's move on. You're better than this. You've certainly spent enough time in courts and jails for a lifetime." 
 
 Merlino must report to prison in 45 days. 
 
 Copyright Associated Press ||||| Joey Merlino is headed back to prison. 
 
 “Skinny Joey,” the reputed boss of the Philadelphia mob who has a home in Boca Raton, was sentenced Wednesday to serve two years in federal prison for a gambling-related count to which he pleaded guilty in April. 
 
 The sentence, imposed by a federal judge in Manhattan, marks just the latest stint of incarceration for the mouthy celebrity gangster, who has survived assassination attempts, beaten murder charges in court, and spent at least a decade locked up for prior convictions on counts of racketeering, conspiracy, assault or related offenses. 
 
 It was the stiffest possible penalty for Merlino, who had opted to plead guilty to a single count instead of facing a retrial on a litany of other charges. Still, in imposing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan said that Merlino needed to move on from his prolific criminal past. 
 
 “Mr. Merlino, enough,” Sullivan said. “Let’s move on.” 
 
 Merlino, for his part, said afterward that he planned to use the time behind bars to get into shape. And, in an apparent reference to witnesses who cooperated with the government against him, he quipped: “President Trump is right — they’ve got to outlaw the flippers.” 
 
 Merlino has long insisted that he has left his criminal past behind — relocating to Boca Raton in 2011 and serving as maitre d’ at an eponymous restaurant he opened there. But his most recent brush with the law resulted from his indictment in 2016 in a sweeping East Coast mob crackdown. 
 
 Manhattan-based prosecutors accused Merlino and 45 other alleged mobsters of operating illegal gambling rings and bribing doctors to write unnecessary prescriptions for topical skin creams, among other alleged schemes. 
 
 Nearly every defendant pleaded guilty before trial, but Merlino opted to take his case before a jury — even though he faced a lengthy potential prison term if convicted. Earlier this year, a judge declared a mistrial after jurors reported being hopelessly deadlocked. 
 
 Just two months later, in a surprising twist, Merlino decided to plead guilty to a single gambling count instead of facing a retrial. It was the first time the brash mobster had admitted to criminal conduct in court. 
 
 Edwin J. Jacobs Jr., Merlino’s lawyer, said in April that the plea was prudent because Merlino — a longtime gambling addict — would be exposed to a much longer prison sentence if convicted at a retrial. 
 
 In court documents, prosecutors had asked Sullivan to impose the full two-year prison term against Merlino, citing his extensive criminal history and what they viewed as a continuing indifference to obeying the law. In sentencing memos, they wrote that “the experience of standing trial twice for murder did not sufficiently discourage him from engaging in illegal activity.” 
 
 Jacobs, meanwhile, asked Sullivan to impose a sentence of house arrest. And he requested that any prison sentence be reduced by four months to account for the time Merlino spent behind bars in 2014, when a federal judge in Philadelphia ordered Merlino jailed for violating his probation by socializing with a purported mob associate at a Boca Raton cigar bar. An appellate court eventually overturned that ruling, freeing Merlino just 10 days before his jail term was to have ended. 
 
 Sullivan declined to do so, saying he felt two years of incarceration was a good deal for Merlino given the evidence presented at trial.
– Reputed Philadelphia mob boss "Skinny Joey" Merlino says he plans to spend the next two years working out. Granted he won't have much else to do in federal prison. Merlino—who previously spent 12 years behind bars for racketeering, conspiracy, and assault (and was twice acquitted of murder)—was sentenced to the maximum two-year term Wednesday after pleading guilty to illegal betting in April, reports NBC Philadelphia. "Enough. Let's move on," US District Judge Richard Sullivan told him. "You've certainly spent enough time in courts and jails for a lifetime." Required to report to prison in 45 days, the 56-year-old left Manhattan federal court telling reporters, "President Trump is right—they've got to outlaw the flippers," a reference to presidential comments in August. Still, Merlino's guilty plea was a big step: It was the first time he admitted wrongdoing in court, per the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Arrested in a 2016 crackdown on an East Coast syndicate accused of extortion, loan-sharking, illegal gambling, and fraud, Merlino first took his case to trial, but jurors were deadlocked. Though the ultimate sentence wasn't the one Merlino's attorney wanted—he requested half of any sentence be served on house arrest—it was a lighter one than Merlino could've expected if convicted at trial, especially given what prosecutors had to say. "The experience of standing trial twice for murder did not sufficiently discourage him from engaging in illegal activity," they noted, describing a steady unconcern for the law. (This mob boss was released from prison years early.)