Last February 5, the Messina police called by Daniela Zinnanti found the woman at Santo Bonfiglio’s house “in critical condition, swollen and covered in blood with wounds to the eyebrow arch and ear”. The man, now in prison for killing his ex-partner who was stabbed on Monday night, told the police that his partner had fallen because she was drunk. For having subjected her to physical and emotional harassment to the point of reducing her to conditions of subjection and causing injuries such as rib fractures, Bonfiglio had been placed under house arrest with the use of an electronic bracelet. A further and heavier precautionary measure compared to the approach ban to which he had previously been subjected for similar facts towards his partner. But the monitoring device was missing and the killer escaped and killed the ex. In the precautionary order issued in February, less than a week after the request of the Messina Prosecutor’s Office, the investigating judge writes that the man had been warned in June 2025 by the police commissioner for the mistreatment to which he subjected his partner. In the provision, the commissioner spoke of Bonfiglio’s dangerousness and the risk that he could carry out “more serious” actions. The relationship between the victim and the killer had always been difficult. On May 30, 2025, Bonfiglio punched the woman in the head, making her fall to the ground and then kicked her until she passed out. Bonfiglio, the judge wrote, had already been convicted of crimes against the person and of carrying weapons or objects capable of offending. After the beating in February Daniela was taken to hospital, where the doctors found rib fractures, head trauma, stab wounds, and was judged to be healable in 30 days. When questioned, Zinnanti recounted an ordeal made up of arguments and beatings which also culminated in attempts at suffocation and said that after 31 May 2025 she had had to resort to medical treatment two more times. “The monthly frequency of attacks described by the woman – writes the investigating judge in the latest precautionary measure – outlines an unsustainable and humiliating lifestyle, typical of the incriminating case, not affected by the various attempts at reconciliation which, on the contrary, confirm the psychological submission of the victim”. For the February attack, the investigating judge had ordered immediate trial for the accused, set for next May.
The electronic bracelet ordered together with the house arrest for Santino Bonfiglio should have arrived today. The control device, which the investigating judge had prescribed in the precautionary custody order issued after the complaint for injuries presented by the victim on 5 February, was not available at the time of execution of the provision.