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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Don Vito Guilty of Groping Girls Cries "Just Kill Me Now"

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Very much like in the picture above, Don Vito, Bam Margera's rotund and lovable lazy-eyed uncle, was accused of feeling up three girls in Colorado last year, and today he was found guilty of fondling two of them.

When the verdict was read, the 51-year-old Vincent Margera fell to the floor and cursed "just kill me now."

He was acquitted of a third count of sex assault on a child. He faces a sentence of probation to six years in prison on each conviction. If he doesn't comply with sex offender treatment as part of the sentence, he could potentially spend life in prison, district attorney's spokeswoman Pam Russell said. After Margera's courtroom outburst, deputies restrained him and took him to jail, where he was being held without bail until his sentencing hearing, set for Dec. 20.

Defense attorney Pamela Mackey had argued that when Margera appeared at the skate park, he took on the persona of the outrageous and profane Don Vito. Mackey had said that Margera, a car painter, learned that the crazier he acted, the more his fans loved it. - AP

Unfortunately anyone who had seen the show "Viva La Bam" knows that it was Bam who was loved for the crazier he acted, that the uncle was the oaf who always got beat-down and abused. Reality imitates reality, it appears.

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