The second degree trial of Massimiliano Farci, the 56-year-old from Assemini sentenced in the first instance to life imprisonment plus 18 months of daytime isolation for the femicide of his partner, Speranza, opened this morning in the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Sassari. Ponti, 49 years old, killed in Alghero on 5 December 2019 . In the courtroom in front of the Court, presided over by Maria Teresa Lupinu, alongside Marina Capitta, the preliminary requests presented by the defense lawyer, Daniele Solinas, were discussed.
The defense asked to hear the Carabinieri Major Marshal, Gavino Piras, in the courtroom for clarification on the biological traces found in Speranza Ponti's apartment; order new reports on the DNA of males who may have had contact with the victim and the accused; acquire the woman's banking documentation; carry out an assessment of the telephones and digital and IT devices of Speranza Ponti's ex-husband, Manlio Prainito; also carry out an investigation on Farci's phones to verify the man's movements from 1 to 31 December 2019.
The deputy prosecutor Angelo Beccu, applied to the Assize Court of Appeal for this trial, and the civil party lawyer, Edoardo Morette, opposed the requests . In essence , for the prosecutor, all requests are superfluous because they relate to points already sufficiently established during the first instance trial . After an hour of deliberation, the Court rejected all the preliminary requests presented by the defense and adjourned the hearing to November 10th for the parties' discussions.
Farci, who is already serving a life sentence for the killing of the entrepreneur Renato Baldussi from San Sperate in 1999 (but since 2017 he had been in semi-freedom and had opened a pizzeria in Alghero), has always declared himself innocent, claiming to have found his partner died at home, hanged with a sheet from the bedroom door. Then he admitted to having hidden the body by taking it to a hill overlooking the Capo Caccia promontory, explaining that he had done so both because it was Speranza's wish and because he was afraid of not being believed by the police. Sentencing is scheduled for December 15.
(Unioneonline/D)