The dock remains empty, Ivano Perico he refused to appear before the Assize Court of President Patrizia Ingrascì. He is in prison and he has already confessed to having killed his cousin Stefania Rotahitting her on the head with the meat tenderizer, in her house a Mapello, 11 February 2023 (the body was found on April 21). Perico doesn’t have many ways out, except two to get a relatively limited sentence or, a more difficult route, an acquittal for inability to understand and will.
The life sentence knot
The aggravating circumstance contested by prosecutor Letizia Ruggeri is life imprisonment, for this reason the accused could not choose the abbreviated trial with a reduced sentence. It is the main issue on which the clash between the prosecutor and the lawyer was already seen at the first hearing yesterday Roberta Campana. The defense requested the abbreviated sentence again, subject to modification of the accusation excluding the aggravating circumstance. He also requested (and obtained) the acquisition of the medical records relating to Perico’s hospitalization in Psychiatryin March 2023, of those from the prison and 12 photos depicting his home and the neighboring one of the victim, 62 years old, his age.
The prosecutor: «Not negotiable»
The prosecutor takes no step back on the aggravating circumstance: «It has been the subject of thoughtful evaluations, therefore it is not negotiable. Nothing against, however, deciding on the basis of the documents”. The abject reasons are 35 square meters of Perico’s wall which remained illegal after Stefania Rota obtained amnesty for the roof of the neighboring warehouse inherited from her father. In the defendant’s mind – so he said – it was a grave wrong after the help he also gave her in small things.
He greets her mentally
The Carabinieri from the operational section of Bergamo and the Ponte San Pietro station will not be there to explain how the suspicion of a crime arose, starting from the hypothesis of death due to illness, and how Perico was reached. It’s all already in the acquired cards. There will be no witnesses. Doctor Giuseppina Paolillo will instead be heardpsychiatrist at the Parma hospital who, on April 15th, will be in charge of psychiatric report on the accused. He will say whether Perico, between hospitalizations and Down syndrome, was capable of understanding when he killed his cousin, whether he can stand trial and whether he is socially dangerous. The defendant may in turn appoint an advisor.
Perico will speak (maybe)
Yesterday (Wednesday 27 March) Perico was not there but his lawyer anticipated that he could make some spontaneous statements. The accused did not collapse immediately after the crime, on the contrary. The body was found on April 21, but the death was traced back to two months earlier based on the last text messages from the victim’s cell phone, the shopping receipt on the table and the last day he wrote in the diary in which he wrote everything down. To Stefania Rota’s friend who went to look for her at her house, even at his place, she said that she had gone to the seaside to look after an elderly man. He used his cousin’s car until her body was found. Arrested on May 13, he made admissions to the police, at first he didn’t speak to the investigating judge but then he told everything. He also set fire to the surveyor’s office Davide Colombi Manzi, responsible from his point of view for the amnesty practice. He is a civil party with the lawyer Marco Afeltra. While five cousins (Mattia Caravina was in the courtroom) and uncles are people offended by the lawyer Eva Carminati.
The DNA on the shoe
The results of the RIS investigations arrived after the conclusion of the investigations also enter the trial. It’s just a confirmation, given the confession. Among the tests is the one on Perico’s shoes: under one sole there was the victim’s blood.
No to TVs in the classroom
Rai had asked to be able to resume the trial. PM No: «The normal public interest can be satisfied by attending the trial. In general, cameras disrupt the hearing, especially in murder cases.”. No from the defense “also due to the personality of the person involved and the psychiatric report”. No from the civil party. Taking this into account, the Court did not authorize them.
