The Assize Court of Lucca has sentenced Cinzia Dal Pino, a 67-year-old seaside entrepreneur, to 18 years for murder. On 8 September 2024 in Viareggio, she killed the thief who had robbed her bag, Noureddine Mezgui, known as Said, a Moroccan, by hitting him several times with her car .
The woman was granted mitigating circumstances and the aggravating circumstance of cruelty was dropped.
Dal Pino listened to the sentencing in court, accompanied by her daughter, without reacting. The court ordered her to serve her sentence under house arrest.
The prosecutor had requested a life sentence. The defense, however, had asked the court to reformulate the crime the woman was charged with, downgrading it to negligent excess of self-defense, or to unintentional excess: two crimes that fall within the scope of manslaughter and manslaughter, which presuppose a lack of intent. According to her lawyers, Dal Pino wanted to retrieve the bag, full of personal belongings important to her, but without any intention of revenge .
According to the Prosecutor's Office, however, the woman acted with gullibility, not only to recover the bag but also to punish the victim, in what the prosecutor Sara Polino in her closing speech had defined as an "excessive" revenge .
Cinzia Dal Pino's case became a national sensation, sparking a rift in public opinion. CCTV footage was released, showing the woman's SUV hitting the man and driving back and forth over his body several times before she got out of the vehicle, retrieved her bag, and drove off, leaving him stranded.
"I expected a different outcome, both in terms of the legal classification and the severity of the sentence," said Entico Marzaduri, Dal Pino's lawyer, who is awaiting the verdict and announced he will most likely appeal. Dal Pino, who was "hoping for a less severe outcome," declined to comment. Asked if the woman felt remorse, Marzaduri referred to what had already emerged during the case. "She expressed herself during the hearing, she has already made her feelings clear," the defense attorney said, and "in any case," he recalled, "before being arrested, she had gone to church to pray."
