COSENZA – New hearing today in the Court of Assizes in Cosenza of the trial for the murder of Rocco Gioffrè, 75 years old, killed with several stab wounds in an apartment in a building in via Monte Grappa, on 14 February last year by Tiziana Mirabelli, who five days later confessed everything and turned himself in to the Carabinieri of Cosenza.
As always, the accused Tiziana Mirabelli, defended by the lawyer Cristian Cristiano, was present in the courtroom. Today’s hearing saw the testimony of the experts Vannio Vercillo (anatomical pathologist who carried out the first cadaveric inspection at the crime scene) and the medical examiner Silvio Cavalcanti that have carried out the autopsy on Gioffrè’s body and then drafted the report.
The first home inspection. Died 72 hours before discovery
the medical examiner Berardo Silvio Cavalcanti and the doctor Vannio Vercillo, pathologist explained to the court their findings based on the autopsy. In particular, Dr. Vercillo highlighted that from his first inspection of the apartment he immediately highlighted the presence of several traces of blood both in the sleeping area, but also from the corridor to the bathroom and it was also possible to notice large traces of blood caused «by streak of blood on the floor». Inside the bathroom «in the tub there was a blanket soaked in blood». Doctor Vercillo explained that the body was «wrapped in blankets and cellophane and lying on the floor. The clothes were soaked in blood and corresponding to the injuries found on the body». He placed Gioffrè’s death at «72 hours before your inspection” and the body would have remained on the floor and not on the bed.
41 stab wounds were inflicted, with shots to the lungs lethal
Gioffrè’s body was then moved to the morgue and An autopsy was performed 3 days later. From the consultancy explained in the courtroom by the two experts and their hypotheses, it emerges that the homicidal action it took place in 3 phases with Gioffrè grabbed and blocked with the left hand punch of Mirabelli who would then have him hit with 41 stab wounds, most of these between the collarbone and the chest: half of these stab wounds were penetrating inside the body, the others subcutaneously. Of these stab wounds, 11 affected the lungs: 3 on the right and 8 on the left. Death would have occurred in 1-2 minutes. In fact, the shots that reached the lungs, breaking the lungs and caused them were lethal very serious respiratory failurebut also hemorrhagic shock: Gioffrè would have lost a lot of blood: «the majority of blood loss spilled outwards.”
Homicidal action in three phases
The experts explain that in the first phase the murderer found himself facing the victim head-on and hit Gioffrè with a series of «penetrating stab wounds between the neck and chest causing bleeding in the airways». Then, the second phase when the man begins to flex his trunk and is hit by stab wounds in the suprascapular region. Finally, in a third phase, when the man is about to fall to the ground and rests his hands and knees on the floor, he is hit in the back of the head. As regards the weapon used and the type of shots, the two experts explain that it was used a knife for both cutting and cutting, with a single-edged edge with a smooth blade».
The lesions on Gioffrè’s face and on Mirabelli’s hand
As regards Giorrè’s vault, the two doctors highlight that theThe victim had facial injuries, in particular the hematomas that affected the forehead, the eyebrow area up to the chin. The PM asks Dr. Vannio Vercillo if he had the opportunity to visit Tiziana Mirabelli. The doctor’s response is affirmative: «she was examined on February 19 and from the visual inspection it emerged that Mirabelli had some of her «wounds on the left hand, index finger and base of the thumb, a clear hematoma on the little finger which was swollen and swollen, so much so that he couldn’t flex it, and at the end of his right hand on the back.”
Injuries on Mirabelli’s hand due to blows inflicted with the knife
On February 24, this time together with Dr. Cavalcanti, Vercillo made a second visit to Mirabelli in prison: «we concentrated precisely on the hands to check if there were any injuries. Mirabelli presented a bloodless gauze and plaster dressing on the fifth finger of the right hand and then a dressing also on the end of the second finger of the left hand while on the back we did not find any lesions». As for the right hand, it was there a small interphalangeal linear outcome of the little finger and the finger was painful». Here is the conclusion: the hematoma on the little finger and on the right extremity of the hand are compatible with the blows given in succession «the moment the woman holds the knife. The little finger is the first finger that impacts the blade, so it is a self-inflicted injury” due to dynamics. «It must be considered that the two subjects were moving.”
The cross-examination and the defense’s doubts about Mirabelli’s injuries
In cross-examination, Mirabelli’s lawyer, Christian Christian, immediately highlighted that theand 41 stab wounds mentioned are not present in the medical-legal report. On this point, Vercillo specified that the number indicated was limited in the external cadaveric examination report. He then reiterated that compared to an initial examination which is carried out through cadaveric inspection, an autopsy highlights a series of elements that are often not possible to see at a first examination.
But the most debated point was the one relating to the changes on Gioffrè’s face and on Mirabrelli’s hand caused not by the stab wounds inflicted but by a punch thrown at the victim. The lawyer highlights that in Vercillo’s report it is written that the trauma to Gioffrè’s face may be compatible with a punch while «today in the courtroom he tells us something else, namely that the injuries to Gioffrè’s face were caused by his fall to the floor and his convulsions». Vercillo explains that «iInitially I had hypothesized a punch in the presence of swelling and a hematoma on Mirabelli’s hand. It could fit into one of the hypotheses. The damage to the victim’s face cannot be traced back only to a punch, but we do not exclude that there may have been».
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