He avoided life imprisonment at the last minute by confessing online. At the Assizes he risked life imprisonment for his barbaric behavior the manager of a slot room in Legnago was murdered with iron bars, in the Veronese area, after having robbed him of 2,900 euros, the proceeds of a hard day’s work. But Daniel Ispas, 45 years old, Romanian serial thief, subjected to trial via audio-video connection from Budapest prison in recent monthsmanaged to limit the sentence to thirty years of imprisonment (of which 24 for voluntary homicide and the remaining 6 for robbery) thanks to a desperate move at the last minute that took everyone by surprise, starting with his own defenders.
A coup yielding less than 3 thousand euros, a predatory act that ended in blood. A brutal execution, a violent death, a barbaric crime that remained unsolved for a long time: at 9.47pm on 22 December 2019 the 59 year old Mario Piozzi, originally from Bresciawas left by his dying killer, with his head smashed with a bar, in the back of the betting shop that the victim ran in Viale dei Caduti in Legnago.
«It was me, I admit it. I stabbed him to death, I just wanted to rob but then…”. A confession in direct connection from the cell, a twist that took place at the last hearing after over 4 years of stubborn silence. A novelty that had shocked everyone, even the defenders of the accused, who had become a “confessed criminal” on the eve of the first degree sentence. A turning point that took place in the courtroom a month ago, in front of the Verona Assize Court, just as the Scaliger prosecutor was about to speak to pronounce the sentencing request.
Postponed for a month, the discussion took place in the courtroom now: thirty years in prison requested by the prosecution, thirty years in prison sanctioned by the judges upon returning to the courtroom. Tried and sentenced “remotely”, the murderer’s reaction via audio-video connection was laconic, impassive, without any emotional outbursts whatsoever. It seemed that he was expecting it, that he was already resigned to such an epilogue. In 90 days the Court has announced the filing of the reasons, “after which – announce the defendant’s lawyers, lawyers Felice Rubino and Giacomo Manfrini – we will appeal”.
Two hundred thousand euros, meanwhile, the amount of compensation established by the judges in favor of the civil party, Fabio Piozzi, son of the victim Mario, resident in Brescia. For the defense it would have been a degenerate coup, a predatory act whose tragic epilogue would have gone beyond the real intentions of the accused: “I’m guilty, I confess, I’m sorry because I didn’t want it to end like this…”.
Before the guilty plea a month ago, the 45-year-old Ispas had always remained silent, denying to his own lawyers that he had committed that obscure crime over 4 years ago. A violent death, that of Piozzi, for which until February 2023, over three years later, the name of the person responsible was known but not where he was. All the clues, according to the carabinieri coordinated by the La Scala prosecutor Eugenia Bertini, framed beyond any doubt Ispas, a Romanian with residence in Legnago: his identification as Piozzi’s killer still dated back to the summer of 2020, the only problem was to succeed To find it.
A year ago, the turning point long awaited by investigators: the hitherto unobtainable Ispas had been identified in prison in Romania. A serial thief, after the fatal robbery that cost Piozzi his life, he continued his delinquent “career” by pulling off other heists: a chain of crimes against property that was interrupted when Ispas was arrested red-handed in his native country. And it is precisely in the Romanian cell where he was already locked up for theft, that the investigators were able to notify him of the request for indictment by the Verona Prosecutor’s Office for the crime he was allegedly guilty of in Legnago.
That evening, the first to find Piozzi in a pool of blood was the daughter of his business partner who lived in the same building: he was still breathing, he would have died a couple of hours after being transported to Borgo Trento. Locked up in a cell in Romania for other crimes, Ispas attended the trial via audio-video connection from a foreign prison. A unique case, which forced the defendant’s defense to have to speak to their client by calling him on the cell phone at their own expense, even after yesterday’s conviction.
