The judges of Bari (president Eustacchio Cafaro) confirmed the crime of voluntary homicide (with possible malice) aggravated by trivial motives and by having committed the crime “through the use of fighting techniques such as to hinder private defence”. According to the judges, he would have thrown those punches at the victim’s face with the intention of killing. Or at least with the knowledge that that violent sequence of shots could have proved lethal, accepting the risk.
The defense, the lawyers Nicola Quaranta and Giovanni Capaldi, insisted that the crime be reclassified from voluntary to manslaughter, highlighting that Giampalmo did not launch “typical martial arts” blows, but only a single sequence of four boxing punches, of which only the last one was capable of producing a stun” and ” not in lethal areas.” According to the reconstruction of the prosecution, the accused arrived at the service station with his partner, his children and some of his friends.
Here, after an argument, “to respond to a provocation, because he had not shown respect to his group of friends”, he aggressively threw four punches at Caprio. The judges entirely confirmed the first instance sentence, both on the legal qualification and on the quantification of the sentence.
