The murder of Serena Mollicone recalls that of Marco Vannini. The parallel was drawn before the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Rome by Deputy Attorney General Deborah Landolfi during the closing speech of the trial for the murder of the 18-year-old from Arce killed in 2001, referring to the obligation of “guarantee and protection of the owners of the home towards people hosted by them who are in danger of life”.
The Attorney General explains that in the Vannini murder “the young man was a guest in his girlfriend’s house when he was wounded by a gunshot fired by the girl’s father (Antonio Ciontoli, ed.) and then left to die without calling for adequate help”.
“The obligation to guarantee arises for the owner of a home when he hosts a person who finds himself in a dangerous situation – he clarifies – precisely because he was in his home and was in a place where no one else could enter”.
“Marco put Serena’s life in danger in an apartment, where only the Mottolas could access and had the obligation to intervene – as the deputy attorneys general Deborah Landolfi and Francesco Piantoni write in their final report -. Both parents and Marco himself had the obligation to guarantee to provide assistance to the girl who had entered the house that was available only to them and they did not do this, indeed they wanted to hide what had happened to avoid criminal consequences to the detriment of their son. But, in this case, they also decided to suffocate the girl and therefore kill her deliberately, to then make the body and every trace disappear”.
Mottola family seeks sentences on appeal
“I believe that poor Serena was killed by all three members of the Mottola family in collusion with each other.Marco slammed her against the door and all three suffocated her with duct tape” said Deputy Attorney General Deborah Landolfi. The Attorney General has asked 24 years of imprisonment for the former commander of the Carabinieri barracks of Arce Franco Mottola22 years for his wife Annamaria and for his son Marco, acquittal for Vincenzo Quatrale and four years for Francesco Suprano (who waived the statute of limitations).
“We have assessed the possibility that the conduct was carried out by only two members of the family and that the third simply assisted – said Landolfi – In any case this person will have to answer for homicide by omission because he knew what was happening and did nothing to save Serena”. According to the reconstruction of the deputy prosecutor “at 11 Serena goes to the barracks to see Marco, Franco Mottola is also there, who returned at 10 from the Carabinieri party, and his wife Annamaria is there, as shown by several phone calls”. “At 11.30, after an argument with Marco Mottola, the girl is pushed against the door and is hit in the head but will die between 13 and 21. We know that she died because she was suffocated and that she remained there stunned and never regained consciousness. When Marco saw the unconscious girl he must have been scared – continued Landolfi – we cannot exclude that she asked for help from her parents who were in the barracks”.
“At 12 Marco Mottola was seen in the square by Davide Bove – he continued in the reconstruction – even after having pushed Serena he left the house and went to the square. He was counting on the fact that other people would take the initiative on what to do with this girl”. “He went out and the parents remained at home, we know that the girl remained there without dying for several hours – he said – hours in which those present meditated on what to do”. “The young woman died of asphyxiation: 15 meters of adhesive tape were wrapped around her head covering her nose and mouth and causing her death”. “The homicidal conduct was the gagging then she was tied up so that she could be transported outside the barracks accommodation – he added – To do these maneuvers the collaboration of two people was necessary. To wrap the 15 meters of adhesive tape around a person’s head there had to be a person helping”. Franco Mottola is, said deputy prosecutor Landolfi, “the person who behaved most seriously because he was the commander of the Carabinieri station and should have been the first to take the initiative to prevent this girl from dying”.
The defense: “A mud machine against the Mottola family”
“I ask that Franco Mottola be acquitted for not having committed the crime” said the lawyer Enrico Meta, defender of the former commander of the Arce barracks, Franco Mottola. “I was just 13 years old when the murder of Serena Mollicone shocked not only all the kids of my age but the entire community of the area – said the defender – Having grown up as a lawyer I found myself dealing with this case. One aspect that struck me between 2017 and 2018 was the attitude of the Mottola family who urged the start of a trial because they wanted to see their hybrid position change. They were in limbo but in reality they had been living in hell for years. All this knowing they were innocent. Then there was the acquittal even though on the same day they were the object of a vile attack. An attack resulting from the mud machine that had been activated against them. We are here to bring justice to Serena but also to the defendants who have been subjected to the mud machine“. “I too had a different idea but then reading the documents I saw the granite certainties contained in the information crumble”, he added.
“For years there has been an inference that Franco Mottola had picked up Guglielmo Mollicone during the wake of his own initiative. How is it possible that this activity carried out on the instructions of the judicial authority could have been placed on Marshal Mottola for all this time?” said the lawyer. For Franco Mottola the lawyer asked for acquittal for not having committed the crime. The lawyer of the Defense pool then reconstructed June 1, 2001, the day of Serena’s disappearance. “Between 6:50 and 10, Franco Mottola was busy with the Arma party,” he said, “then he was seen going up to the house.” “The patrol with Tuzi and Quatrale remains at the barracks until 11, then leaves and the presence in the office is guaranteed by Mottola. The patrol is called back and leaves again to carry out formalities. The barracks is occupied by Mottola who acts as a sentry. At 11.07 Franco Mottola calls Simone Pasquale with the gravity of what is happening and he tells him come whenever you want. Then the man goes to the barracks and it is certified that he collects a document”. “Claudio Lancia is also called at home and he calls back. In that case too they tell him to go to the barracks. In short, while the tragedy was taking place upstairs in the barracks, the activity downstairs was going on as normal”. “In the afternoon there are phone calls that testify to the usual family activities – he explains – just while in the barracks, according to the prosecution, there is a dying girl. And in those moments Annamaria Mottola thinks about making calls to friends and relatives?”. “In the evening there are continuous contacts between the Carabinieri of Ceprano and Pontecorvo. Mottola is in the barracks in Arce. To date it is not known at what time they would have transported this body. There are many calls and then there is Guglielmo Mollicone who goes to the barracks. In short, there is not a moment of discontinuity between all these activities that would guarantee the loading of the body into the car. The route from the barracks to the place where Serena was found is 10 km long”.
“I do not believe that even the slightest proof of Suprano’s guilt has been reached,” said Emiliano Germani, the lawyer defending Francesco Suprano at the second-degree trial. In his final brief, the Attorney General had requested an acquittal due to the statute of limitations, but Suprano decided to waive the statute of limitations. So the request is a four-year sentence for aiding and abetting.
“Francesco Suprano should be acquitted because the fact does not exist and not because the fact does not constitute a crime”, stressed the lawyer who then turned to the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Rome. “Judges, break this chain – he said – and let’s go and look for those responsible for this murder, avoiding making people like Francesco Suprano go through everything they have had to suffer in these years”. Speaking of Brigadier Santino Tuzi, the lawyer stressed that “he was subjected to interrogation carried out without the guarantees of the law. He was questioned in 2008 but already in 2007 he had been asked for a report on the facts. Suprano and Tuzi had already been subjected to pressure from Marshal Evangelista, a new Sherlock Holmes, for a year”.
“When Tuzi reports Marshal Evangelista he reports that the carabiniere had told him that he would have them put in handcuffs”. On Carmine Belli, he adds that he should be considered unreliable after 17 months of pre-trial detention”. Finally, focusing on the door of the barracks, considered by the prosecution to be the murder weapon, he says: “Suprano handed over the door as it was, he could have hit it with a hammer and altered it since we spent months arguing about centimetres”. The lawyer Francesco Candido, defender of Francesco Quatrale, for whom the deputy general prosecutors have requested acquittal, has instead urged the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Rome to go beyond the first-instance sentence. “I have doubts about the acquittal with the motivation ‘because the fact does not exist’ pursuant to the second paragraph of article 530 and I request acquittal pursuant to the first paragraph”, therefore, a full acquittal.
Daughter of Brigadier Tuzi:
“Today the sentences for the defendants were requested. I am a little sorry that the acquittals of Suprano and Quatrale were requested. They should have been judged too. My father also has the right to have justice. My father was the first to speak and to give an orientation to the investigations with his statements”. He said this at the end of the hearing of the trial for the murder of Serena Mollicone, Maria Tuzi, the daughter of Brigadier Santino Tuzi, who committed suicide in 2008 after declaring that he had seen Serena enter the barracks. “The defense also spoke in court today and said that many years have passed and that in the meantime the daughter of one of the defendants has become a mother – he added – My father knew he was the grandfather of only one grandchild. We have arrived at today and my father will never know that he would become the grandfather of four grandchildren. My father paid for his statements with his life, without enjoying any joy and also limiting ours”.
