Trial Delayed for 'Friend' Who Stole Mobster Ponzo's Hidden Treasure

Enrico Ponzo

Kelly Verceles -- supposedly a "close" friend of mobster Enrico Ponzo, who lived on the lam in Idaho for 10-odd years, with a longtime girlfriend and two children, before his arrest this past February -- was supposed to begin a jury trial Monday, reports the  Idaho Statesman.

He is alleged to have ripped up the floor of Ponzo’s Marsing, Id., home and stolen over $150,000 in cash and gold, according to FBI and Owyhee County Sheriff’s officials. He is to face felony charges of criminal conspiracy, grand theft and burglary.  

That trial is now set to begin Sept. 27, following a granted delay, according to Owyhee County court records referred to in the Statesman article.

"Verceles told authorities earlier this spring he didn’t get Enrico Ponzo’s permission to dig up cash and gold stashed below the accused mobster’s Marsing home -- even though Verceles has called the man he knew as Jay Shaw a 'brother,'" the article reports.

Recent court testimony also indicates federal investigators only found out about the safe in late March, when they searched Ponzo’s home for computer equipment and documents — and found a hole in the concrete floor of the basement.

Verceles and co-defendants Robert and Nicholas Corson have all pleaded "not guilty" to the charges earlier this spring. The crimes of grand theft and burglary are punishable by up to 14 and 10 years in prison.

The Corson’s are scheduled to begin their jury trial Sept. 27.

"Ponzo had asked Verceles to watch his house and cattle after Ponzo was arrested in February on decades-old federal charges of racketeering, conspiracy and murder charges for what the FBI says was his role in a factional war of the New England La Cosa Nostra. Ponzo now awaits a jury trial in Boston," the article notes.

Owyhee County Prosecutor Douglas Emery said in May it appears as that more than $10,000 could still be unaccounted for.

Read full article: Jury trial for Marsing man accused of stealing cash and gold from Enrico Ponzo delayed until September.