Three people charged with Bulger’s murder reached plea deal, prosecutors say

Three men accused of the 2018 prison killing of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger have reached plea deals with prosecutors, according to court documents filed Monday.

The plea deals were disclosed nearly six years after the 89-year-old gangster, who spent nearly two decades on the run, was beaten to death in his cell at a troubled West Virginia prison.

Fotios “Freddy” Geas and Paul J. DeCologero were accused of punching Bulger multiple times in the head while Sean McKinnon served as a lookout. An inmate witness told authorities that DeCologero said he and Geas used a belt with a padlock attached to beat Bulger to death.

Prosecutors asked the court to schedule hearings so the men could change their pleas to not guilty and be sentenced, although they did not provide further details about the plea agreements, which were not filed in court.

Belinda Haynie, Geas’ attorney, declined to comment on the change of plea. Lawyers for the other two defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Prosecutors said last year they would not seek the death penalty for Geas and DeCologero, who are charged with murder. All three men were charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, which carries a possible life sentence. McKinnon was also charged with making false statements to a federal agent.

Bulger, who led the largely Irish mob in Boston in the 1970s and 1980s, was an FBI informant who exposed his gang’s chief rival. He became one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives after fleeing Boston in 1994 on a tip from his FBI agent that he was about to be indicted. He was captured at the age of 81 after more than 16 years on the run.

In 2013, he was convicted of a series of 11 murders and dozens of other gang crimes, many of which were committed while he was considered an FBI informant.

Bulger was killed just hours after being transferred from a Florida prison to USP Hazelton in West Virginia and placed in general population. Bulger’s transfer to Hazelton, where workers had already raised the alarm about violence and understaffing, and his placement in the general population instead of more protective housing were widely criticized by experts after his assassination.

An investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general found that his killing was the result of multiple layers of management failures, widespread incompetence and flawed Bureau of Prisons policies. The inspector general found no evidence of “malicious intent” on the part of any office employee, but said a series of bureaucratic errors left Bulger at the mercy of rival gangsters behind the bars.

Bulger never admitted to working for the FBI. Court documents made public in a lawsuit filed by his family showed he was questioned by staff after arriving at Hazelton about whether there were reasons he should be held difference from the general population. A screening form signed by Bulger indicates he answered “no” to the question “have you assisted law enforcement officers in any way?”