A private detective - who yesterday testified in a Long Island courtroom that accused hit-mom Susan Williams asked him to find a hitman - said he got some of the tough-guy language he used with Williams from an episode of ``The Sopranos.’’
Joseph LaBella said that when Williams, 43, asked him in a Carle Place diner to find someone she could pay to injure or kill her estranged husband Peter Williams, he said he responded that someone could ``beat him up with a bat, a pipe’’ and put him into a coma ``sipping through a straw in a hospital bed.’’
Under cross-examination, defense lawyer John Carman asked the retired undercover cop if he had switched into his ``alter-ego as a street thug?’’
``No,’’ LaBella answered. When Carman pressed LaBella where he got the phrase ``sipping through a straw,’’ LaBella smiled and replied:
``Probably watching TV - `The Sopranos.’ ‘’
LaBella said he could not remember if he hugged and kissed Mrs. Williams when he met her at the diner back in February. He also admitted he discussed injuring or killing Peter Williams, 46 - but did not contact police for three days, after he consulted with a criminal defense lawyer.
That was when cops set up the sting that allegedly caught Mrs. Williams - fresh from the beauty parlor - making a $500 down payment on a hit, telling the undercover officer ``I want him gone.’’
The murder-for-hire exchange inside an SUV was captured on video and is expected to be played later today.
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