The Court of Assizes of Appeal of Catanzaro acquitted Giuseppe Cortese for the Competition in the murder of Stefano D’Arcathe 54 -year -old from Crotone killed with five pistol shots on the night of March 8, 2019 under the arcades of Viale Margherita in the center of Crotone. Cortese was acquitted for not committing the fact. With the same sentence, the man was sentenced to 1 year and 4 months of imprisonment, with the conditional suspension of the sentence, for bringing the gun with which the grandfather of Cortese, Francesco Pezziniti, 80 years old, he killed Arca.
The crime arose from a dispute between the victim and Giuseppe Cortese, at the time 29 years old. D’Arca had damaged goods and other objects in the bar that Cortese managed. Quarrel then continued also outside the place overlooking the arcades. Cortese then armed with a gun taken from the grandfather’s house together with which he then returned to the bar. At that juncture, Pezziniti torn the weapon from his nephew from his hand and shot Arca, reached by five bullets in the chest. For this reason, the Court of Assizes of Catanzaro inflicted on him 15 years and 7 months of imprisonment for voluntary murder and 11 years of imprisonment in Cortese for anomalous competition in the crime. Decision confirmed also in the second instance by the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Catanzaro which however had reduced to 10 years and 8 months the sentence for Giuseppe Cortese. The Cassation then declared definitively the sentence of Pezziniti but canceled with postponement that of Giuseppe Cortese who today was acquitted for the anomalous competition in the murder for not having committed the fact.