It took less than four hours Wednesday for a Brooklyn jury to convict a former door-to-door salesman in the execution-style murders of three shopkeepers of Middle Eastern descent.
The swift verdict against Salvatore “Son of Sal” Perrone, 67, came despite — or perhaps because of — his haphazard efforts to act as his own lawyer and take the stand in his own defense.
“I was set up,” he had insisted in rambling testimony to jurors as the sole defense witness.
He faces 75 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced on March 4.
Perrone had claimed throughout the trial that he’d been framed by a series of mysterious figures, including an “Iranian national” who he said had the “fictitious name” of Michael Bila.
The Staten Island man has also tried to throw everyone off his trail by insisting he was a CIA operative hired by “Arabs” to kill Jewish men.
Family members of all three victims sobbed tears of joy and hugged in the audience following the verdict, quietly whispering ‘Thank you’ and clasping hands with one another.
Perrone was not present as a jury found him guilty of the murders of Mohamed Gebeli, Isaac Kadare, and Rahmatollah Vahidipour.
He had been barred from the courtroom during the morning, after blurting out, “Your honor, I would like to make a material fact!” as jurors took their seats for summations.
“Please be quiet,” Justice Alan Marrus responded as Perrone loudly repeated his request, speaking over the judge to demand, “I would like to make a statement on this witness stand.”
“Please take Mr. Perrone out of here,” ordered Marrus, who has responded the same way to the defendant’s frequent outbursts throughout the trial.
“I think the family members need to hear me,” Perrone shrieked desperately Wednesday as court officers converged on him. “Mr. Malikin, I remember your name — you need to find Michael Bila, and that’s not his real name!”
The loved ones of victims Mohamed Gebeli, Isaac Kadare and Rahmatollah Vahidipour sat back in their seats looking horrified, avoiding eye contact as Perrone attempted to address them while being dragged out.
“I have warned Mr. Perrone over and over again,” Marrus told the court after the door slammed behind the disgruntled defendant.
“At this point in the trial, he obviously has nothing to lose, and I have every reason to believe he will continue to disrupt proceedings.
“This was obviously a calculated decision on his part, he waited until the jury was present […] and I’m not gonna tolerate that,” Marrus added.
“Smart,” a family member of one of the slain shopkeepers whispered from the audience.
Perrone was found fit for trial in 2013, but unfit in 2014 after a psychiatrist determined he suffered from delusional paranoia.
The former garment salesman had been diagnosed with personality disorders in May 2015, but found fit to stand trial with the aid of court-appointed attorney Howard Kirsch.
Perrone belittled Kirsch out loud every step of the way, calling him a “dumdum” and the “judge’s prostitute.”
He had initially attempted to represent himself, but he was barred from doing so in May.
“Brooklyn is safer because this serial killer has been convicted,” Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson told family and reporters after the verdict was read. “His outbursts could only delay justice, not deny justice.”
“I think that everything Mr. Perrone did was very calculated,” prosecutor Melissa Carvajal said outside the courtroom, adding he would only interrupt proceedings when he felt evidence was not in his favor.
During summations earlier Wednesday, Carvajal reintroduced jurors to mountains of disturbing trial evidence, including a “kill kit” — a black duffel bag holding a sawed-off rifle and bloody knife — found in Perrone’s girlfriend’s apartment, forensic evidence linking Perrone and the victims to the weapons inside the bag, and video surveillance of the alleged killer lurking in the vicinity of the murders.
“This is what killed these men,” Carvajal said in her closing arguments as she held up the .22-caliber rifle.
“Each piece of this puzzle points to only one man — this man — Salvatore Perrone,” she told riveted jurors.
“The only fingerprint on this gun is Salvatore Perrone’s […] the murder weapon is forensically and scientifically bound to Salvatore Perrone.”
“In his home, underneath all his stuff, you have the sawed-off part of his rifle — recovered under mounds of clothes, under a television, under an air conditioner,” she said.
“There was ammunition in his home too, […] punctures in the walls of his basement, where he practiced using his rifle,” she said. “They match this weapon.”
The prosecutor also showed jurors Perrone’s “kill kit,” reminding them the bag had been splattered with Vahidipour’s blood, and the knife inside was covered in Kadare’s.
“You have the entire duffel bag and all its contents, showing you that Salvatore Perrone is the murderer.”
Perrone’s court-appointed attorney, Howard Kirsch, told jurors during his closing arguments that the people’s case was “based solely on circumstantial evidence.”
“Mr. Perrone, he’s a man in his late 60s, with no real history of violence,” Kirsch told jurors. “All of a sudden, when he’s 64 years old, he starts shooting people for no reason whatsoever?”
“He’s a perfect victim,” Kirsch said. “He’s not a sophisticated person […] you heard from Mr. Perrone, he did not shoot anyone, he had no reason to shoot anyone.”
“He’s being used as a patsy in this case,” Kirsch added, echoing arguments Perrone has made since his arrest in 2012.