Robbery, shootout suspects guilty

SALEM – A jury convicted an East Boston man and a Winthrop man on robbery, weapons and assault charges in connection with a 2012 armed robbery at a Saugusbank and an ensuing shootout with police in Malden that left the defendants’ alleged accomplice dead.”It was violent, frightening and intense,” Essex Assistant District Attorney Kim Faitella said in her closing argument Tuesday in Salem Superior Court. “They were a team … and players on a team all participate and share the same intent.”Michael Ginnetti, 40, of Winthrop, was convicted of 10 of 11 charges, including armed and masked robbery, two counts; armed assault to rob; assault with a dangerous weapon, three counts; use of a firearm in a felony; possession of body armor in a felony; carrying a dangerous weapon; and a firearm violation with a prior violent or drug crime.Ginnetti pleaded guilty on the final charge after the jury returned the guilty findings, according to a spokesperson from Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office.Gabriel Megna, 50, of East Boston, was convicted on eight of nine charges: armed and masked robbery, two counts; armed assault to rob; assault with a dangerous weapon, three counts; use of a firearm in a felony; and carrying a dangerous weapon.Both Megna and Ginnetti were found not guilty of receiving a stolen motor vehicle.Megna and Ginnetti were convicted in connection with an armed robbery at Saugusbank off Route 1 on March 23, 2012. Police fatally shot William Ekasala, 35, of East Boston, during a shootout in Malden following the robbery and car chase. The defendants could face life in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for today at 11 a.m.Attorneys disputed the number of people involved in the robbery, with different witnesses saying three or four people were involved in the incident.But witnesses described how two men wearing Halloween masks, black hooded sweatshirts, latex gloves and body armor and armed with handguns entered Saugusbank late that Friday afternoon. The men demanded unmarked cash be placed into black bags and fled from the building into a red Honda Civic. A Saugus Police officer followed the car as it traveled into Malden and then stopped at a condominium complex in the area of 500 Broadway. Representatives of the State SWAT team, Malden Police and FBI meanwhile joined Saugus Police at the Malden scene where a manhunt and shootout ensued. Police found Megna hiding in a stairwell of the condominium building and found Ginnetti nearby.A report issued by former Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone concluded that Ekasala carjacked three cars, one time using a female as a human shield, as he tried to evade capture and exchanged gunfire with police. Police were justified in fatally shooting Ekasala as he drove at an officer in an attempt to flee the scene, Leone said. Prosecutors identified Ginnetti and Ekasala as the two men who robbed the bank and Megna as the getaway driver. The money stolen totaled $5,287.90, prosecutors said.Ginnetti and Megna’s trial began June 6 in Salem Superior Court before Judge David Lowy.During closing arguments Tuesday morning, Ginnetti’s attorney Peter Marano said no witnesses nor video surveillance could positively place his client in the bank.Marano said the prosecution spent most of the trial speaking about events and evidence collected in Malden. But Ginnetti was “not on trial for that.””Ginnetti is alleged to have committed a crime in Saugus in a bank that nobody saw him in,” Marano told the jury, arguing for acquittal.Megna’s defense attorney Michael Phelan said Megna “was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Phelan said Megna was not the driver but in the backseat of the Honda Civic during “a situation that got out of control.”Phelan said that while Ginnetti had a black bag with cash, a gun and a bulletproof vest, Megna had none of those things.”Megna had nothing on him; there was no evidence he was involved in the bank robbery,” Phelan said. “He had no vest, no gun, no bullets