Artiano murder in the Traiano district: Judges say Gianluca Muro restrained the victim while his son fired.

Naples – She could and should have predicted that her son, armed and humiliated by the slaps, would shoot. Instead, she held him down, blocking his escape route and effectively "delivering" him to the fatal bullet fired by her son Pasquale.

With this chilling motivation, the investigating judge of the Court of Naples, Federica De Bellis, sentenced 51-year-old Gianluca Muro to 10 years and 6 months of imprisonment, deeming him guilty of anomalous complicity in the murder of Antonio 'Anthony' Artiano, the 23-year-old killed at the height of a family feud in the heart of the Traiano district on November 10, 2022.

The sentence, issued last July at the end of a fast-track trial, closes the second chapter of a family tragedy that has already seen Pasquale Muro, the perpetrator of the crime, sentenced to 16 years in prison at the first instance and on appeal.

The dynamics of a cold execution

The judge's reasons reconstruct the snapshots of an argument that escalated into an execution. The meeting, which was supposed to clarify Anthony's alleged mistreatment of his girlfriend, daughter, and sister of the defendants, quickly degenerated.

According to the reconstruction, Antonio Artiano, feeling threatened, had fired several shots in the air with a 7,65 caliber pistol to intimidate those present.

As Anthony attempted to walk away, his father-in-law, Gianluca Muro, grabbed him and pinned him down. Meanwhile, his son Pasquale, who had been slapped by the victim, also pulled out a 6,35 caliber pistol and fired, striking Artiano in the head. He died in the hospital six days later, on November 16th.

The father's "anomalous competition"

The prosecution's case, supported by prosecutors Maurizio De Marco and Valentina Rametta (who had requested 12 years for Gianluca Muro), is based on a crucial legal point: anomalous complicity in murder.

The judge ruled that, although Gianluca Muro had no intention of killing, his action was decisive. He knew his son was armed, and by restraining the victim, he knowingly accepted the risk that the situation could escalate into a more serious situation, namely murder. "If Gianluca Muro had not restrained Anthony," the investigating judge wrote, "the fatal wounding, essentially, would not have occurred."

The ruling also ordered the payment of a provisional sum of €240 to the victim's family, assisted by lawyer Sergio Pisani.

A story that reveals, once again, the dynamics of violence and summary justice that govern relationships in certain territorial contexts, where a family disagreement can transform, in a matter of seconds, into the antechamber of death.