A convicted coin fraudster was hit with a life sentence in Brooklyn federal court Monday for plotting to torture and decapitate the judge and prosecutor who handled his case.
Hulking Joseph Romano, 51, was convicted of trying to pay a pair of FBI agents posing as hit men $40,000 to kill prosecutor Lara Gatz and Judge Joseph Bianco to exact revenge for his 15-year sentence.
The 300-pound menace had even brayed that he wanted to preserve their body parts in formaldehyde as trophies of the harrowing plot.
In court Monday, Romano rambled on to Judge John Keenan for nearly an hour and portrayed himself as a railroaded businessman who only boasted about the chilling scheme to impress jailmates.
But Keenan wasted little time in handing down the life term, telling Romano his plot had targeted the very core of the American justice system.
Prosecutor Marshall Miller lobbied for the life-sentence and noted that Romano had actually forked over cash in order to further the plot.
“He directed the payment of substantial sums of money to achieve his violent goals,” he said. “He did so in an effort to strike at the heart of the American justice system.”
Romano said nothing as the sentence was handed down and calmly thanked the judge before disappearing in custody for the remainder of his life.
Keenan, from Manhattan federal court, presided over Romano’s trial in Brooklyn because Eastern District judges were disqualified from hearing the case.