CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP) — Man accused of serving as lookout in notorious Boston jail murder Gangster James “Whitey” Bulger will not serve additional prison time after pleading guilty Monday to a charge of lying to federal agents.
Sean McKinnon, who was wearing shackles, was hugged by his two lawyers after U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh accepted prosecutors’ recommendation that he be given credit for serving 22 months in custody after his indictment.
McKinnon was charged along with two other inmates at the 2018 killing in a troubled West Virginia prison. Fotios “Freddy” Geas and Paul J. DeCologero are accused of punching Bulger multiple times in the head hours after he was transferred to the prison.
Please offers for all three were disclosed on May 13. Plea hearings and sentencings are set for August. 1 for DeCologero and September. 6 for Geas.
McKinnon was released from USP Hazelton in 2022 after serving time for stealing firearms from a gun dealer. He was on federal supervised release when the indictment was returned a few weeks later, in August 2022.
McKinnon was expected to be flown back to Florida later Monday.
“We’re glad he’s out,” defense attorney Katie Cimono said.
McKinnon’s charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder was dismissed.
McKinnon could have faced up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for making a false statement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Flower said Geas and DeCologero stayed in Bulger’s cell for about seven minutes while McKinnon went to a common area of the jail before returning. McKinnon later told FBI special agents “that he was unaware of what happened to Mr. Bulger,” Flower said. “Actually, he knew.”
Cimino argued that McKinnon’s lie “did not harm Mr. Bulger.”
No one came forward when the judge asked if any family members wanted to speak before sentencing McKinnon.
According to prosecutors, DeCologero, a Massachusetts gangster, told an inmate witness that Bulger was a “snitch” and that as soon as he arrived at their unit, they planned to kill him. DeCologero, a former mob hitman, also told an inmate that he and Geas used a belt with a padlock attached to bludgeon him to death.
Geas and DeCologero were identified as suspects shortly after Bulger’s death, but they remained without charges for years as the investigation dragged on.
Last year, the Justice Department said it would not seek the death penalty for Geas and DeCologero, who were charged with murder, as well as conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, which carries a possible life sentence.
Bulger, who led Boston’s largely Irish mob in the 1970s and 1980s, was also an FBI informant who provided the bureau with information on his gang’s chief rival.
He became one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives after fleeing Boston in 1994 on a tip from his FBI agent that he was about to be indicted. He was captured at the age of 81 after more than 16 years on the run.
Bulger was Convicted in 2013 In a string of 11 murders and dozens of other gang crimes, many of them were committed while he was considered an FBI informant.
Bulger was killed just hours after being transferred from a Florida lockup to USP Hazelton in West Virginia. After the killing, experts criticized his transfer to Hazelton, where workers had already raised the alarm about violence and understaffing, and his placement in general population instead of more protective housing.
An inspector general of the Department of Justice investigation found in 2022 that his assassination was the result of multiple layers of management failures, widespread incompetence, and flawed policies within the Bureau of Prisons. The inspector general found no evidence of “malicious intent” on the part of any office employee, but said a series of bureaucratic errors left Bulger at the mercy of rival gangsters.
DeCologero, who was part of a gang led by his uncle, was convicted of buying heroin used to try to kill a teenage girl his uncle wanted to kill because he feared she would betray the crew to the police. After the heroin failed to kill her, another man broke her neck, dismembered her body and buried her remains in the woods, according to court records.
Geas was a close collaborator of the mafia and acted as an enforcer, but was not an official “made” member because he is Greek and not Italian. He and his brother were sentenced to life in 2011 for their roles in several violent crimes, including the 2003 murder of Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, a Genovese crime family boss in Springfield, Massachusetts. Another gangster ordered Bruno’s killing because he was upset that he had spoken to the FBI, prosecutors said.
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An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated that Geas and DeCologero were scheduled to appear in court Monday. Their hearings are expected to take place later this summer.