Reputed mob associate who fled Mass. in '94 for Idaho goes on trial on attempted murder charge

BOSTON – A reputed mob associate who fled Massachusetts in 1994 and lived quietly as a cattle rancher in Idaho is now on trial in Boston.

Enrico Ponzo was known as Jay Shaw during the decade he spent in Marsing, Idaho. His past closed in on him in 2011, when authorities arrested him on a 1997 racketeering indictment.

Ponzo is accused of a litany of crimes, including the 1989 attempted murder of Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme (suh-LEHM'-mee).

Salemme went on to become the boss of the Patriarca crime family.

Ponzo's lawyer told jurors that Ponzo was not a made member of the Mafia and is being accused by gangsters who cut deals with prosecutors for lesser sentences. He says Ponzo fled Massachusetts because he feared for his life.