The first hearing of the second-degree trial, before the Assizes Court of Appeal of Rome, for the murder of Willy Monteiro Duarte, the boy killed with kicks and punches in Piazza Oberdan in Collefetto (Rome), lasted a few minutes . evening of 6 September 2020 after intervening in defense of a friend of his who was attacked by some local people.
Due to the "precarious" panel of judges, the proceeding was adjourned to next April 27th.
In the first instance trial that took place in Frosinone , the brothers Marco and Gabriele Bianchi were sentenced to life imprisonment , Mario Pincarelli at 21 and Francesco Belleggia at 23 .
All found guilty of hitting Willy in the head, neck, chest and abdomen, even when the boy was passed out on the ground. For the Bianchi brothers, life imprisonment was triggered as they were experts in the extreme martial art of MMA and therefore - the court held - perfectly aware of the fact that their blows could be fatal. The Court of Assizes of Frosinone held that the Bianchi brothers had acted with the intention of killing .
The new lawyers of Marco and Gabriele Bianchi focus on the alleged unreliability of the testimonies that framed the two brothers. Many of the witnesses, they claim, were drunk that night and therefore cannot have clear memories of what happened.
They also claim that the autopsy did not clarify what was the fatal blow that killed Willy and ask the Court of Appeal to re-evaluate the samples collected by the coroner. Again, they reconstruct the crime scene in a different way, involving the other two defendants Belleggia and Pincarelli more.
The last element on which they base their appeal is the "environmental climate" in which the trial was held, which in their opinion was "polluted" by the media overexposure . The judges, the lawyers argue, would have started with a sort of prejudice on the two defendants.
" We are convinced that the prosecution system will also hold up in the appeal process - says the lawyer Domenico Marzi, Willy's family lawyer -. The issue is linked to life sentences: we expect confirmation of the affirmation of the defendants' responsibilities».
(Unioneonline/L)
