An increase in the sentence from 16 years inflicted by the Court of Assizes of Cosenza to 23 – the same requested by the prosecution in first instance – was requested by the prosecutor of Castrovillari Luca Primicerio, applied as deputy general prosecutor in the Court of Assizes of Appeal in Catanzaro, against Isabella Internò, accused as instigator and participant in the murder of Donato «Denis» Bergamini, the dead Cosenza Calcio player on 18 November 1989 along the main road in Roseto Capo Spulico.
Isabella Internò, Bergamini’s ex-girlfriend at the time, was sentenced by the assize court of Cosenza in October 2024. According to the prosecution, there is only one motive that led to the murder of the footballer originally from Argenta (Ferrara), the passionate one: the missed marriage after the woman’s abortion. “There are no other motives – said Primicerio – other than passion.” The prosecutor asked for the recognition of premeditation and that the aggravating circumstances prevail over the generic mitigating circumstances. According to the prosecution there was intent and the murder was voluntary and premeditated. According to the prosecution, Bergamini was suffocated and then his body was placed along the state road where he was hit by a truck and he did not commit suicide by throwing himself under the vehicle as Isabella Internò, who was with him at the time of his death, had said at the time and repeated over the years. A thesis, that of suicide, taken for granted by the first investigation. The Bergamini family, having never believed this thesis, had managed to produce documents that led the Castrovillari Public Prosecutor’s Office, then directed by Eugenio Facciolla, to open a new investigation which led to the woman’s conviction.