Tufano Murder: Four life sentences and 90 years in prison sought for Sanità's 'paranza'

Naples – A night of blind and reckless violence, an armed raid that ended in tragedy, and, in the background, the delusions of omnipotence of a gang of young people linked to the clans. Courtroom 115 of the Assize Court, sealed off and tense, hosted yesterday morning the closing argument of DDA prosecutor Celeste Carrano, reaching the crux of the matter in the trial for the death of fifteen-year-old Emanuele Tufano, the victim of an absurd and fatal "friendly fire."

The dynamics: lead in the dark and the ambush at the Market

The indictment painted by the Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office dismantles the night of October 24, 2024, rewinding the tape of a feud between very young people that grew in the heart of the Sanità neighborhood—under the shadow of the Savarese-Sequino cartel—and spread toward the Mercato neighborhood. In that leaden inferno, where at least four armed individuals raced, one of the gang members lost his life: Emanuele Tufano.

The .22 caliber bullet that pierced him in the back, ending his life at just fifteen years old, most likely came from the gun held by Mattia Buonafine, while the victim was shielding the armed attacker on a scooter.

A revolver elevated to a macabre “symbol of power” by those who in the alleys were mercilessly labeled “the monsters”.

The Prosecutor's Office's demands: four life sentences and a wall against apologies.

By heavily seizing the adults accused in the proceedings, the prosecutor Carrano drew a clear line of demarcation between the top roles and those who, instead, tried in extremis to show repentance or to partially collaborate.

The fine requested by the DDA does not spare the alleged leaders and gunmen of the expedition:
Life imprisonment (life sentence) was invoked for Christian Scarallo (believed to be the leader of the group, who pulled the trigger while riding the scooter driven by Tufano), for the same Mattia Buonafine (considered the material author of the fatal shot), for Joseph Auricchio and for Raffaele Criscuolo.

For them, the letters of apology sent to the family or the spontaneous statements made in court have been branded by the prosecution as mere defensive strategies, "belated attempts" to ease a by-now compromised judicial position.

A 30-year prison sentence, with mitigating circumstances, was instead proposed for Vincenzo Zerobio and Francesco Esposito – who offered a collaborative contribution deemed positive, even without going into every single detail of the ambush – and for Simone Gioffredo , found distraught and present on the scooter, but formally unarmed during the night of fire.

The context of the raid and the other convictions

The case before the Court of Assizes is part of a broader and more complex investigation conducted by the Flying Squad and coordinated by the Naples Anti-Mafia Directorate (led by Nicola Gratteri), an investigation that by May 2025 had already decimated the area's fishing boats with sixteen arrests in the historic center and the suburbs, also shedding light on parallel bloody incidents such as the murder of Emanuele Durante.

On the parallel trial front related to the clashes between the opposing factions, it should be remembered that in recent months a first hefty 12-year prison sentence was handed down to Gennaro De Martino, the only adult identified among the rival Piazza Mercato gang, the protagonist of that wild night of violence. Now the defense has the floor: the Court is called upon to deliver one of the harshest and most painful rulings on the criminal activity of minors in Naples.

(pictured from left: the victim Emanuele Tufano, Mattia Buonafine, Giuseppe Auricchio, Simone Gioffredo, Cristian Scarallo, Francesco Esposito and Gennaro De Martino, the only member of the group in Piazza Mercato)