Rome, 13 Nov. (LaPresse) – The life sentence handed down to Gianluca Molinaro has been upheld on appeal. He was convicted of shooting his ex-partner, Manuela Petrangeli, to death on 4 July 2024 outside a clinic on Via degli Orseolo in Rome’s Portuense district. The woman, the mother of the defendant’s son, was struck by a shot from a sawn-off shotgun. At first instance, the First Court of Assizes of Rome had imposed the maximum sentence on the man. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had sought life imprisonment with 18 months of daytime solitary confinement in its closing speech delivered on 25 November. Public Prosecutor Antonella Pandolfi had outlined a long escalation of threats, obsessive behaviour and stalking, culminating in the murder. “The victim’s life was snatched away by someone who could not accept the end of a relationship, a man trapped in a retrograde and patriarchal mindset that regards women as property,” the prosecutor had stated. According to the prosecution, Molinaro had harboured an obsession with his ex-partner for years, eventually going so far as to plan her murder. “For three and a half years, he harboured blind rage and a pathological obsession. He coldly and methodically planned the murder of his son’s mother. His voice messages speak louder than a thousand witnesses,” Pandolfi had declared. The prosecutor had ruled out the possibility that it was a spontaneous act: “Molinaro’s was not a fit of rage, but a premeditated execution. It was the chronicle of a death foretold.” The man, she recalled, described himself as a ‘time bomb’ and singled out Manuela as the “problem” to be eliminated. The murder investigation was conducted by the Carabinieri and coordinated by Deputy Public Prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini.
Petrangeli femicide: ex-partner sentenced to life imprisonment on appeal
Rome, 13 Nov. (LaPresse) – The life sentence handed down to Gianluca Molinaro has been upheld on appeal. He was convicted of shooting his ex-partner, Manuela Petrangeli, to death on 4 July 2024 outside a clinic on Via degli Orseolo in Rome’s Portuense district. The woman, the mother of the defendant’s son, was struck by a shot from a sawn-off shotgun. At first instance, the First Court of Assizes of Rome had imposed the maximum sentence on the man. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had sought life imprisonment with 18 months of daytime solitary confinement in its closing speech delivered on 25 November. Public Prosecutor Antonella Pandolfi had outlined a long escalation of threats, obsessive behaviour and stalking, culminating in the murder. “The victim’s life was snatched away by someone who could not accept the end of a relationship, a man trapped in a retrograde and patriarchal mindset that regards women as property,” the prosecutor had stated. According to the prosecution, Molinaro had harboured an obsession with his ex-partner for years, eventually going so far as to plan her murder. “For three and a half years, he harboured blind rage and a pathological obsession. He coldly and methodically planned the murder of his son’s mother. His voice messages speak louder than a thousand witnesses,” Pandolfi had declared. The prosecutor had ruled out the possibility that it was a spontaneous act: “Molinaro’s was not a fit of rage, but a premeditated execution. It was the chronicle of a death foretold.” The man, she recalled, described himself as a ‘time bomb’ and singled out Manuela as the “problem” to be eliminated. The murder investigation was conducted by the Carabinieri and coordinated by Deputy Public Prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini.