Time.news – Definitive sentences for Antonio Ciontoli, his wife Maria Pezzillo and his children Federico and Martina, defendants in the trial for lmurder of Marco Vannini, the twenty year old who died in the night between 17 and 18 May 2015 following a gunshot fired from the gun of Ciontoli – father of Vannini’s girlfriend – in the family home in Ladispoli, on the Roman coast.
It was decided there fifth criminal section of the Supreme Court, confirming the sentence issued last September by the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Rome, which, in the appeal-bis, had sentenced Antonio Ciontoli to 14 years in prison for voluntary homicide with possible intent, and his family members at 9 years and 4 months for anomalous complicity in voluntary homicide.
Applause and shouts of joy welcomed the sentence with which the Supreme Court made definitive the sentences to the Ciontoli family for the murder of Marco Vannini while Marco’s parents leaving the Giallombardo courtroom of the Supreme Court said “Finally justice is done”. “We had them promised a bouquet of flowers if justice was done and tomorrow is the first thing I will do “, explained Valerio Vannini.
Meanwhile, the defender of the Ciontoli reported that “Tonight the Ciontoli family will be in prison“.
The stages of the story
A long, dramatic night 6 years ago, at the center of a court case that has sparked many debates and controversies: it is the one between 17 and 18 May 2015, when Marco Vannini, 20, dies after being wounded by a gunshot in his girlfriend’s house, Martina Ciontoli, in Ladispoli.
The shot and the death of Marco
At 11pm on May 17th Marco Vannini he is at the Ciontoli house and is taking a shower, it is the reconstruction that emerged from the investigations: he enters the bathroom Antonio Ciontoli, a non-commissioned officer of Marina and father of Martina, to take two pistols that he had placed in a shoe cabinet.
Marco, says Ciontoli, shows himself interested in these and he, for fun, thinking that the weapon was unloaded, detonates a shot, which injures Vannini in the arm. Forty minutes later, the first call to 118: to speak Federico Ciontoli, son of Antonio and brother of Martina.
It tells the operator that one boy fainted from a joke. The handset passes to the mother, Maria pezzillo, who closes the phone stating that he will call back in case of need.
Shortly after midnight – 00.06 – 118 another phone call arrives: this time it is Antonio Ciontoli, which reports of a boy who got injured in the bathtub with a pointed comb.
The operator hears Vannini’s moans and screams in the background. The ambulance arrives at midnight and 23 minutes: at midnight and 54, Ciontoli al Pit (first aid post) in Ladispoli talks about an accidentally fired shot.
Helicopter rescue is called to transport Vannini to the Gemelli Polyclinic: twice he will be forced to land due to the worsening of the young man’s conditions. Shortly after 3 am on May 18th, Marco Vannini dies.
The processes
With the sentence pronounced on April 14, 2018, the Assize Court of Rome condemnation Antonio Ciontoli for voluntary murder with possible intent to 14 years of imprisonment and inflicts 3 years each on his wife and his two children.
A verdict that is debunked on appeal, when the second instance judges, on January 29, 2019, they declare Ciontoli responsible for manslaughter, sentencing him to 5 years in prison and confirming the 3-year sentence for his family members.
A sentence that unleashes the anger of Vannini’s parents, and which is challenged by the public prosecutor of Rome, which appeals to the Supreme Court, returning to support the thesis of voluntary murder with possible malice.
The trial at the Supreme Court is celebrated on 7 February 2020: the pg Elisabetta Ceniccola urges the annulment of the appeal ruling, sharing the thesis of the general public prosecutor of Rome and the civil parties.
Vannini’s – says the magistrate – must be framed as a voluntary murder and his death was caused by the 110 minute delay in the rescue.
The first criminal section of the Supreme Court accepts this thesis and, annulling the second degree sentence, refers the documents to the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Rome.
The death of Marco Vannini, the judges of the ‘Palazzaccio’ write in their sentence, “occurred” as a “consequence” of both the “injuries caused by the gunshot” and the “lack of aid which, certainly, if promptly activated, would have avoided the unfortunate effect“.
The appeal-bis, therefore, also on the basis of the reasons of the Supreme Court, is concluded last September 30 restoring the 14-year sentence for Antonio Ciontoli on charges of voluntary murder with possible intent, while the wife and children are held responsible for “anomalous competition “and sentenced to 9 years and 4 months of imprisonment. Convictions that today, at the end of the second trial in the Supreme Court, have become final.
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