Man Sentenced To 16 Months In Shelby Township Italian Restaurant Rivalry

SHELBY TOWNSHIP (WWJ/AP) - The former manager of an Italian restaurant in Macomb County has been sentenced to 16 months in prison after he was accused of threatening a competitor.

Giuseppe D'Anna, 64, appeared Monday in Detroit federal court, months after pleading guilty to trying to disrupt interstate commerce.

The crime occurred in 2009 at Nonna's Kitchen — at 23 Mile and Schoenherr in Shelby Township — when D'Anna was manager of Tiramisu across the street.

D'Anna admits he told the owner of Nonna's Kitchen, Pietro Ventimiglia: "You don't open here...But you still have time. Leave the place and don't open the place."

He also made a reference to Sicily, Italy. (An indictment alleged the brothers have ties to the Sicilian Mafia).

In 2012, in state court, D'Anna and his brother, Girolamo D'Anna, were sentenced to two months in jail after they were accused of severely beating Ventimiglia with an aluminum baseball bat and threatening to kill his family if he went to the police.

The brothers were charged with assault to commit murder in that case but made a deal to plead no contest to lesser charges of assault with a deadly weapon and witness intimidation.

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