Fourth District Court of Appeal. Photo: J. Albert Diaz

After being sentenced to life in prison in 2013, Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari will once again have his day in court.

Ferrari, who was convicted along with Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello and James “Pudgy” Fiorillo in the 2001 murder of Miami Subs Grill founder Gus Boulis, will be receiving a new trial after Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal Wednesday reversed his conviction and remanded his case.

The appellate court ruled that Ferrari's Fourth Amendment rights had been violated with the introduction of historical cell site location information, or CSLI, that had been acquired without a warrant as evidence during his trial.

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 ruling in Carpenter v. United States, which held that acquiring a person's historical cell phone location information constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment, the panel ruled that the lower court had “erred in denying the motion to suppress” the information.

“The acquisition of this data without a warrant based on probable cause constituted an illegal search pursuant to the Fourth Amendment,” the opinion reads.

Read the appellate court ruling granting Anthony Ferrari a new trial: 

Additionally, the appellate court ruled that a Richardson violation — referring to when one party fails to disclose the full scope of information acquired during discovery to the other — took place when state prosecutors neglected “to disclose the substance of a co-defendant's statements, as well as the existence of exculpatory statements by another witness.”

“The court also erred in concluding that the State had not committed a Richardson discovery violation,” the opinion reads. “Ferrari was prejudiced in his preparations for trial by these violations.”

The Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal recently made a similar ruling following an appeal from one of Ferrari's co-conspirators. According to a June 6 report in the Sun Sentinel, the high court also ordered a new trial for Moscatiello.

As noted in Wednesday's opinion, Boulis was believed to have been murdered over a business dispute concerning the sale of his SunCruz Casinos cruise line. His death generated a firestorm of controversy due in large part to his business dealings with controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Related: Ex-Abramoff partner says mobster ordered “Gus” Boulis murder

Abramoff later pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud and served a prison sentence for his involvement in the SunCruz deal.

Neither of Ferrari's attorneys, West Palm Beach public defenders Carey Haughwout and Paul Edward Petillo, nor the state attorney general's office responded to requests for comment by press time.

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