Phillip Messick is a mob accountant cooking books as a liaison for racketeering and smuggling operations for the Gambino crime family.
He was killed and his wife and accomplice Valerie critically injured when enforcer Jay Fleckner, with the assistance of Darrell Dennehy, was sent to recover money and loot from the Jessica's when the FBI was closing in. When Valerie perjured her testimony, Fleckner was acquitted, only for her friend and fellow mobster, dirty cop Bob Cerullo, to shoot Fleckner on Valerie's orders.
Valerie, in exchange for immunity, sold Cerullo out to get him convicted, to protect herself from chargea and presumably take over Phillip's operations. (L&O: "Family Friend")