Zecca takes the Fifth during deposition

The federal government’s case against a former U.S. Coast Guard base commander turned murder-for-hire arranger ended in 2014 with his guilty plea and a 10-year low-security prison sentence that some, including his intended victim, argue is grossly lenient.

But there’s still no mention of whose names were blacked out of federal court documents on file in the case, names of people who Zecca indicates in conversations recorded by federal agents were also involved in the plot, and may have even initiated and funded it.

Laurence Kellogg, a lawyer representing Zecca’s intended target in the plot — which was foiled by FBI agents in December 2012 — deposed him Monday, and the victim, Marathon businessman Bruce Schmitt, said Zecca “did reveal some very useful and interesting information” that he could not go into detail about.

Schmitt is suing Zecca for compensation for emotional damages he suffered as a result of the December 2012 murder plot. He hopes the civil action, filed in Monroe County Circuit Court in November, will force Zecca to reveal possible co-conspirators.

Schmitt, who was present when Kellogg deposed Zecca at the low-security federal Coleman Low prison in Sumterville, Fla., Monday, said Zecca took refuge behind the Fifth Amendment’s protection from self-incrimination 50 times.

“When he finally admitted that he did, in fact, plan my murder, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment when asked if he had any remorse,” Schmitt said Tuesday. “When asked how he could plan a murder of someone he never knew and who did him no harm, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment again.”

Zecca’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, said how many times his client took the Fifth doesn’t matter.

“Each individual question has to be viewed independently to determine whether an answer to that question may compromise a person’s right not to incriminate him or herself,” O’Mara said in an email Tuesday.

“The number of assertions is, quite honestly, irrelevant, as it only relates to the number of questions asked. My client answered all questions he could, while being careful not to waive his constitutional rights,” O’Mara said.

Schmitt is not alone in suspecting others were involved in the plot. Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward believes the federal case against Zecca is incomplete, and his office is in the process of researching ways to file state conspiracy charges. O’Mara said that possibility makes protecting his client from self-incrimination ever more important.

“With a pending criminal investigation, those rights are paramount, primarily because it is the government that carries the sole burden to prove its case,” he said. “If it cannot, it doesn’t deserve its conviction.”

Zecca, a decorated retired chief warrant officer whose last assignment was commanding Coast Guard Station Islamorada, pleaded guilty to federal attempted murder for hire in 2014. In exchange for his plea, U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecutors dropped cocaine charges that could have landed him in prison for life if a jury found him guilty. Zecca, 55, is two years into his 10-year sentence.

It’s not clear what, if anything, prosecutors received in return for the plea. Transcripts of recorded conversations between Zecca and the man he hired to kill Zecca contain blacked-out names of people who Zecca implies were involved in the planned hit.

The hired shooter worked for Zecca at the marina he owned at the time, the Marathon Marina & Boatyard on 11th Street oceanside. But he also worked as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration in its investigation into Zecca involving the purchase of 10 kilos of cocaine from fictional California suppliers.

When the informant told his DEA handlers that Zecca contracted him to kill Schmitt, the agents told FBI agents, who staged a murder scene complete with Schmitt lying in a pool of fake blood. The informant showed Zecca the photo of the bogus corpes in December 2012. According to the transcripts, Zecca told him he had to get the money he owed him for the hit from someone who he named, but whose name is redacted from publicly -available court documents.

As Zecca got into the vehicle to go to the person or people who had the $5,000, FBI agents arrested him. That person or people, who are listed John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 in the civil case, remain a mystery to the public, but Schmitt’s hopeful that will change.

“For me, this is now just the beginning. Dennis Zecca, while we will never be friends, will get to know me very well over the coming years,” Schmitt said. “It may become a very uncomfortable relationship, to say the least.”

This story was originally published May 17, 2017 at 9:33 AM with the headline "Zecca takes the Fifth during deposition."