Just a year and change after an errant bullet pierced the glass of the North End’s Modern Pastry shop, the shooter has pleaded guilty to assault charges related to the bizarre event.
Partrick Mendoza, 55, of the North End, pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court Friday afternoon to charges including assault to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, intimidating a witness related to an attempted shooting last summer. His family owns the prominent Italian restaurant Monica’s Trattoria.
“There was a serious mental health lapse in this case,” Mendoza’s attorney Rosemary Scapicchio said at Friday’s hearing, adding that her client is working on his mental issues.
Judge Christopher Belezos sentenced Mendoza to two and a half years in state prison, 18 months of which — minus time already served — must be served. The balance of the sentence is then suspended for three years of probation during which Mendoza has to comply with a mental health treatment plan.
“You have the ability to win this bet,” Belezos said. “If you don’t believe you can win this bet then don’t take this bet, because this is up to you to make this work.”
Mendoza said he would and added, “God bless you, your honor.”
Mendoza is the brother of Jorge Mendoza-Iturralde, another North End restaurant owner, who is running for Mayor of Boston against incumbent Michelle Wu. The Mendoza family has been outspoken in the debate over outdoor dining in the North End, arguing that Wu has singled out the neighborhood in restrictions to the popular dining option.
Mendoza, who witnesses described at the time as “a skinny white male in his 40s that looked homeless,” dropped his bike in the 200-block of Hanover Street at around 11 p.m. on July 12, 2023, pulled out a handgun and fired three shots at a man he had a decades-long feud with, according to the police report.
Rocco Giovanello, the target of Mendoza’s fire, dove behind a parked Jeep to avoid the shots — one of which blasted straight into the iconic cannoli shop — and Mendoza fled “on a bike with the handgun still in hand towards Cross St.,” the report continued.
“He rides down on his bicycle and starts swearing at me, calling me ‘(Expletive)face,’ Giovanello said of Mendoza in a police interview shown in court during Mendoza’s arraignment later that month. “He gets off his bike, drops his bike in the street, and goes down to his waist. I thought he was going to pull a knife on me … but he pulls a gun instead.”
Boston Police would search for Mendoza for about a week before locating and arresting him, with the assistance of Falmouth Police, at the Gosnold Treatment Center, a high-end rehab facility next to the Beebe Woods near the coast in Falmouth.
This is a developing story.
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