For the second time, the Court of Cassation has overturned and remanded the case to the Court of Assizes of Appeal (Court of Assizes of Appeal) the 21-year and two-month sentence imposed on Alice Flore, accused of complicity in the murder of her brother-in-law Angelo Maria Piras, killed on January 25, 2015, in the Lula countryside.
At the same time, Alice Flore was acquitted without further trial on the charge of carrying a weapon, a crime now extinct due to the statute of limitations.
The appeal filed by the woman's defense attorneys, Francesco Lai and Potito Flagella, was based on three main grounds. At the heart of the appeal, in particular, was the fact that the Cagliari Court of Appeal, in issuing the latest conviction, invoked findings contained in the previous ruling, which had already been overturned once by the Supreme Court.
Furthermore, the defense claims that the judges failed to adequately consider the new audio analysis of the wiretaps, which was deemed crucial to reconstructing the facts. One phrase captured in the recordings has been the subject of conflicting interpretations for years: the prosecution believed it referred to "four cartridges," an element considered consistent with the preparation of the ambush; the defense, however, believed the words uttered were "four sandwiches for the dog," a phrase entirely unrelated to the murder.
The technical consultants appointed by the defense also argued that Flore would never have gotten out of the car at the place where the boots containing Nico Piras's DNA were found, another element considered central to the investigation.
The latest ruling from the Cagliari Court of Appeal found Flore guilty of moral and material complicity in the murder of her ex-brother-in-law, sentencing her to 21 years in prison. The Court rejected the Attorney General's request for acquittal.
The trial that led to the conviction was the second appeal ordered by the Court of Cassation following the overturning of the previous 24-year sentences handed down to Alice Flore and her ex-husband, Nico Piras. In the first instance, before the Assize Court of Nuoro, both were acquitted. Subsequently, following an appeal filed by Nuoro prosecutor Andrea Jacopo Ghironi, the conviction was upheld on appeal, but was later overturned by the Supreme Court, which requested a reassessment of the wiretaps and the evidence.
Nico Piras was killed in 2023 by his nephew Antonello, son of Angelo Maria, in yet another tragic chapter in a long family tragedy. Now the matter is once again in the hands of the judges. A third Court of Assizes of Appeal. The Supreme Court's reasoning will clarify which aspects of the appeal ruling were deemed lacking and which elements will need to be reevaluated in the new trial.