Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
The preliminary hearing judge of the Court, Simone De Martino, sentenced Francesco Mirabella, a 32-year-old from Syracuse, to 17 years in prison for the murder of naval officer Giuseppe Pellizzeri on the afternoon of 10 June last year. The conviction followed a trial held under the abbreviated procedure and is slightly higher than the 16 years and eight months requested by the public prosecutor, who had also asked for the aggravating circumstance to be excluded at the end of the prosecution’s case.
The judge ordered the defendant – represented by lawyers Salvino Mondello and Antonio Meduri – to pay compensation, the amount to be determined in civil proceedings, and to provide an interim payment of €35,000 to each of the civil parties: the victim’s wife and two minor children, represented by lawyer Sebastiano Grimaldi; Pellizzeri’s mother, assisted by lawyer Giuseppe Culotti; and his sister, represented by lawyer Gianbattista Rizza.
The murder stemmed from a dispute over unpaid rent for a warehouse. According to investigators, on the morning of 10 June 2025 a heated argument took place, which continued in the afternoon in via Elorina, where Mirabella arrived armed with a pistol and fired two shots at Pellizzeri, fatally wounding him. After leaving the scene, the 32-year-old voluntarily went to the provincial Carabinieri headquarters and confessed to killing the man.
