The Court of Assizes of Lecce, presided over by judge Pietro Baffa, he handed down three life sentences and one 27-year prison sentence against the four accused for the murder of the seventy-five-year-old carpenter Donato Montinaro. The lifeless body of the elderly man was found on 11 June 2022 in his home in Castrì (Lecce), gagged, hooded and tied to a table.
According to the prosecution, the murder occurred during a robbery that went wrong.
The requests of the public prosecutor Erika Masetti were fully accepted. Patrizia Piccinni, 49 years old from Alessano, was sentenced to life imprisonment with 18 months of daytime isolation; Angela Martella, 59 years old from Salve, to life imprisonment with 1 year of daytime isolation; and Emanuele Forte, 32 years old from Corsano, to life imprisonment with 1 year of daytime isolation. Antonio Esposito, 40 years old from Corsano, was sentenced to 27 years in prison, having obtained the generic mitigating circumstances as recognized by the public prosecutor, since he was the only one to collaborate with the investigations and show sincere repentance.
All four defendants, accused of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery in complicity, have been permanently banned from holding public office. They were accused of having entered the seventy-five-year-old’s home with the intent to steal a considerable sum of money that the elderly man kept in his home, although it has not been proven that the money was actually stolen. However, the theft of a chainsaw from the garage was confirmed.
Ansa reports it.
