Convicted Rochester mobster pleads guilty to escape

ROCHESTER N.Y. (WHEC) — The Rochester mobster who was convicted in the 1990s of killing three people pleaded guilty to criminal escape, show court records from Tuesday.

U.S. Marshals caught 64-year-old Dominic Taddeo a week after he escaped from federal custody on March 28. Taddeo was arraigned on the escape charge on April 7.

Tuesday’s courtroom documents, from the U.S. District Court in Florida, said that Taddeo’s sentencing is pending and he is currently in the custody of U.S. Marshals.

Authorities say 64-year-old Dominic Taddeo walked away from his halfway house in Florida on Monday, March 28. He was sent to DISMAS Charities after he spent decades in a Sumter County, Florida medium-security prison and was scheduled to be there until his release in February 2023.

When Taddeo failed to return from an authorized medical appointment about two miles away at 5 p.m., staff from the halfway house tried to get ahold of Taddeo, but the criminal complaint against him alleges he would not answer his phone. By 5:45 p.m., he was "placed on escape status", a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said.

In the 1980s, Taddeo killed three people and tried to kill two others on behalf of the La Cosa Nostra. One of his assassination attempts targeted a rival mob captain, Thomas Marotta.

He was also convicted of federal racketeering charges and pleaded guilty to multiple other cases involving weapons offenses, drugs, and enterprise corruption among other offenses.