Father Patriciello shot during Mass: Boss's father-in-law sentenced to three years

Naples – The trial against Vittorio De Luca, the 75-year-old who on September 28 of last year handed an envelope containing a bullet to Don Maurizio Patriciello, parish priest of the church of San Paolo Apostolo in Caivano, just as the priest was distributing Communion, has concluded with a three-year prison sentence.

The judges of the Naples North Court found the defendant, currently under house arrest, responsible for the crime of stalking, fully recognizing the aggravating circumstance of mafia methods. De Luca is, in fact, the father-in-law of Domenico Ciccarelli, a prominent figure and contact of the eponymous clan active in Parco Verde. The sentence was reached in record time, considering the judicial process and the ordinary trial procedure.

The decisive assessment on mental capacity

The crux of the decision was the elderly man's mental health. Defense attorney Gabriele Roberto Cerbo has already announced an appeal, expressing strong concerns: "Five previous expert reports, conducted in other proceedings, which declared my client incompetent, were not taken into account."

The court's own expert report, ordered for this hearing by the same court, held a different view, certifying the 75-year-old's full capacity to understand, decide, and stand trial. The prosecution, represented by the public prosecutor, had requested a harsher sentence of 4 years and 8 months.

The precedents and the words of the parish priest

De Luca's legal situation remains complex: he was previously acquitted of threatening the parish priest with a knife, but he still has two other cases pending against him.

The incident with the bullet, which led to an immediate reinforcement of the anti-Camorra priest's security detail, was preceded by a disturbing aftermath. Don Patriciello himself recounted how, the day before the envelope was to be delivered, the old man had approached him and said, "No one will do anything to me, they've declared me incompetent."

"Vittorio is a person I love and who has never caused me any direct problems," Don Maurizio commented at the time, recalling however the weight of his kinship with the criminal family that has marked Caivano's recent history.