Gelsomina Verde Murder: The Attorney General's Office seeks 30-year sentences for De Lucia and Rinaldi.

Naples – The prosecutor presented the evidence before the lower court, reiterating the full responsibility of the two defendants for complicity in the kidnapping and aggravated murder of Gelsomina Verde, the twenty-one-year-old murdered and set on fire on November 21, 2004. Present in court were the young woman's mother, Anna Lucarelli, and her brother Francesco, assisted by civil party lawyers Liana Nesta and Gianmario Siani for the Polis Foundation.

Tension during the connection with the penitentiaries

The atmosphere in the courtroom became heated during the hearing. When the faces of Luigi De Lucia and Pasquale Rinaldi, known as 'o vickingo, appeared on the screen, connected via video conference from the prisons where they are held, the victim's mother could not handle the emotional impact.

The woman shouted into the monitors her outrage and the pain accumulated over more than twenty years of waiting for her trial. Faced with the intensity of her outburst, her family and staff had to assist her, escorting her outside so the trial could resume.

The first degree and the investigative turning point of July 2023

The Deputy Attorney General's request aims to secure the outcome of the first-instance trial. On February 13, 2024, preliminary hearing judge Valentina Giovanniello, at the conclusion of the summary trial, sentenced both defendants to thirty years in prison, excluding a life sentence by virtue of the reduction provided by the alternative trial procedure.

That ruling was the culmination of a complex and tenacious reopening of the investigative file by the Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate. Long unaccounted for, the case reached a turning point on July 27, 2023, when law enforcement served a pre-trial detention order on De Lucia and Rinaldi, identified as stable members of the operational commando.

The death trap and the failed alibi in the Scampia feud

During the closing argument, the details of the ambush were reconstructed, which occurred at the height of the conflict between the Di Lauro clan of Cupa dell'Arco and the Scissionisti faction led by the Amato-Pagano clan. Gelsomina Verde was sentenced to death for a past romantic relationship with Gennaro Notturno, known as "'o Sarracino," who had turned his back on the clan and later became a collaborator with justice.

The gang's leaders believed the girl knew her rival's hideout. On November 21, 2004, the twenty-one-year-old was approached and trapped: an accomplice climbed into her car from the passenger side to subdue her, while De Lucia and Rinaldi followed her a short distance away in another car, drawing weapons, to cover the attack.

Taken to an isolated area, Gelsomina was beaten to extract information she didn't possess, before being shot in the head by Ugo De Lucia, Luigi's cousin and already sentenced to life imprisonment as the perpetrator. Finally, in an attempt to eliminate any biological evidence, the group set fire to the small car with the body inside. A criminal plot on which the Attorney General's Office has now requested a final conviction.