Benno Neumair , the 31-year-old from Bolzano who on 4 January 2021 killed his parents, Peter Neumair , 63, and Laura Perselli , 68, and then threw their bodies into the Adige , was sentenced to life imprisonment.
After more than five hours of deliberation, the jurors accepted the requests of the prosecutors Federica Iovene and Igor Secco, who asked for the application of the maximum penalty for both murders in addition to daytime isolation for a year . Benno will also have to pay a provisional to the civil parties : 200,000 euros to his sister Madè and 80,000 euros to Laura Perselli's sister, Carla.
The defense lawyers, Angelo Polo and Flavio Moccia, instead asked to apply the extenuating circumstances and consider the defendant incapable of understanding and wanting. According to the expert report of the consultants they appointed, the 31-year-old would suffer from "a serious personality disorder", he would be "sick and socially dangerous" .
The prosecution, on the other hand, believes the crimes were committed "with full conscience and will" . Not only that: the confession was "late and utilitarian", precisely because it came after the discovery of the mother's body . “Benno suffers from a personality disorder. He does not suffer because he does not repent. And he didn't suffer when he staged his show here before you. It's not that his illness has made it impossible for him to ask his sister's forgiveness here in the courtroom or at least say a simple apology. Nothing would have prevented him from speaking to a psychiatrist in prison," said prosecutor Igor Secco in his closing speech.
