“She stabbed herself”

06 May 2024, 20:26

1 minute read

TRAPANI – “It wasn’t me who stabbed her. Maria killed herself by herself stabbing herself with the knife in front of my eyes during an argument we had over the girls. I tried to take the knife out of her hands, which is why my fingerprints are there.”

Thus, before the Assize Court of Trapani, defends himself Ernesto Favara, 64 years oldformer fisherman from Castelvetrano, on trial on charges of having killed his wife on 24 December 2022 in the home of Marinella di Selinunte Maria Amatuzzo, 29 years old, from Palermo.

The process

The prosecutor of the Marsala prosecutor’s office, Stefania Tredici, supports the accusation. Immediately after the crime, Favara was arrested by the Carabinieri, on the street, near his home, while he still had the blood-stained knife in his hand. Maria Amatuzzo, a few months earlier, had left her husband (currently on trial, in court, in Marsala, for family abuse) and had gone to live with another man.

Murder, reconstruction

Amatuzzo was allegedly lured to her home by Favara: “Come get your coat, I won’t be home.” But when she entered the garage she was immediately stabbed. The autopsy revealed that there were 28 blows, inflicted on various parts of the body. Among the five aggravating circumstances contested by the prosecution, there are also frivolous motives, premeditation and cruelty.

After the deposition of the accused, one of the lawyers for the civil party, thelawyer Roberta Anselmiwhich represents the Casa di Venere anti-violence center in Marsala, he asked Favara how Maria Amatuzzo would have “hit herself with the knife from behind”.