Pierina Paganelli case: prosecutor seeks life sentence for Louis Dassilva
The public prosecutor Daniele Paci has sought a life sentence for the 35-year-old Senegalese man, accused of murdering the retired woman from Rimini in 2023.
Life sentence for Dassilva: prosecutor Paci's closing argument
Following a closing argument lasting six hours, public prosecutor Daniele Paci sought a life sentence for Louis Dassilva, the 35-year-old Senegalese man charged with the aggravated murder of Pierina Paganelli. ANSA Cronaca reports. The 78-year-old retired woman was killed in Rimini on the evening of 3 October 2023.
The State Prosecutor's Office asked the jury of the Assizes Court to exclude generic mitigating circumstances, despite the absence of previous convictions against the defendant. The aggravating factors of cruelty and reduced capacity for defence "do exist", Paci stated: according to the prosecutor, Pierina Paganelli was ambushed in the dark and her attacker "used 27 knife wounds to make the victim suffer", who screamed in terror and pain before dying.
The prosecutor argued that trivial and contemptible motives also existed. "Dassilva could have avoided killing Pierina if he had only taken responsibility as a man", Paci stated, referring to the defendant's relationship with Manuela Bianchi, the victim's daughter-in-law. According to the prosecution, Dassilva chose to "eliminate what could be his problem" in order not to lose the economic stability he had acquired in Italy, where he lived with his wife.
Finally, the Prosecutor's Office argued for premeditation: Dassilva allegedly laid an ambush for the victim in the condominium garage after seeing her return home. "From when he learnt that Pierina would go alone to the Jehovah's Witnesses meeting that evening to when he acted to kill, three and a half hours passed", Paci specified, considering this sufficient time to establish premeditation. In support of this argument, the prosecutor cited the judgement relating to the murder of Benno Neumair, in which premeditation was recognised within a span of only 40 minutes.
Source: ANSA Cronaca