Don't believe a defense lawyer's argument that John "Junior" Gotti quit organized crime with a sudden epiphany more than a decade ago, a prosecutor told a jury Monday during closing arguments in Gotti's fourth trial on racketeering charges in as many years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Trezevant called the claim contrary to evidence. "It makes no sense," he said as he started daylong closings.

Gotti would have had to turn against hundreds of mobsters working for him and immediately stop more than a decade of "nonstop crime," Trezevant said.

"He has never, never quit that life," the prosecutor said as Gotti sat calmly at the defense table at the 2-month trial. Three others ended in mistrials.

Gotti's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, countered the prosecution's closing by attacking the government's turncoat witnesses, saying they were willing to tell lies about Gotti to reduce their own prison sentences.

"The trial should be a search for the truth. The truth should not be for sale," Carnesi said.

Carnesi finished for the day without addressing the prosecutor's claims that Gotti never quit organized crime. He left the subject for Tuesday morning, when he will resume his argument.

Carnesi has maintained that Gotti quit the Gambino family business when he pleaded guilty in 1999 to racketeering and agreed to serve five years in prison.

Just before he concluded the defense case earlier Monday, Carnesi introduced evidence to show that a fellow mobster threatened Gotti's life after hearing he had given up organized crime. Continued...