A 70-year-old man, Salvatore
Montefusco, has been sentenced by a court of assizes in Modena
to 30 years in prison instead of life for the double murder of
his wife and her daughter over the "understandably human motives
that drove him to commit the crime", according to the motivation
of a sentence which has been viewed by ANSA.
The motivation of the court of assizes issued on Monday, which
includes a jury as well as two judges, in choosing a 30-year
term for the double femicide on June 13 2022 rather than the
life term requested by prosecutors was that Montefusco "did not
have a police record at 70 and would never have committed a
crime of such gravity had he not been driven by the dire family
dynamic that had developed over time".
Montefusco shot his wife Gabriela Trandafir, 47, and her
22-year-old daughter Renata dead with a machine gun in the
central town of Cavazzona di Castelfranco Emilia.
The court recognized the extenuating circumstances, ruling out,
among others, premeditation and cruelty.
The attorney representing the family of the two victims, Barbara
Iannuccelli, commented the motivation of the sentence on Monday
saying her clients were stunned by the motivation.
"The very young victim Renata Trandafir wanted to become a
lawyer in order to be able to defend herself from the daily
violence she and her mother had to endure", she said.
"Today, she was spared the experience of having to understand
why the merciless killer of two unprotected women could benefit
from such benevolence.
"Generic extenuating circumstances sweeping away any aggravating
circumstance for …human understanding", she said, quoting the
sentence's motivation, "we are all navigating in a sea of strong
disbelief".
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