The DDA public prosecutor revokes his consent to the plea bargain – accusing him of the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method – and he increases the dose of threats: «The investigating judge Mariano must watch his back, it won’t end like this». This is what happened during the pre-trial hearing held on Tuesday in Potenza, in which the proposed 8-month plea bargain, to be replaced with public utility work, for the 42-year-old from Mesagne should have been discussed. Pancrazio Carrinoaccused of having threatened the investigating judge of the Court of Lecce in a letter and with an awl Maria Francesca Mariano«guilty» of having signed the precautionary custody order for the operation «The Wolf», which landed him in prison, accusing him of a sexual assault that he said never occurred.
The threats
The facts for which Carrino had requested a plea deal date back to the end of August 2023. On the 30th he would have addressed threats to five penitentiary officers at Lecce prison, towards whom he threateningly brandished a blunt object, trying to force them “to omit acts pertaining to their office”, because he did not want to return to his cell after his hour of exercise; the following day, however, on the occasion of the hearing before the investigating judge Mariano, the man from Mesagne gave an inspector of the penitentiary police an awl (15 centimeters long with a glass end) and a handwritten note, specifying that they were intended for the judge who he had in front of him.
Carrino is also known in the news for having been the protagonist of the attempted attack against the public prosecutor Carmen Ruggierounder the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Lecce, of which – by his own admission – he wanted to “cut the jugular” with a homemade knife during a meeting obtained with the prosecutor (inquiry in the “The Wolf” investigation) by pretending of wanting to repent.
Magistrates under guard
The judge and public prosecutor, as is known, have been under guard since last summer, after having initially been the recipients of threatening letters – both when leaving prison and delivered by hand to the office, some of which were even signed in blood and containing references to the devil – and of attempted attacks, fortunately all foiled. Last February, the severed head of a pig pierced by a knife, accompanied by a card with the words “So”.
