“The Court, after having proceeded to a careful and detailed examination of the evidence forming the basis of the double declaration of liability, also taking into account the critical issues highlighted by the defense, proceeded to the necessary verification of the demonstrative suitability of the new elements indicated by the defense. The evaluation regarding the lack of decisiveness of the “nova” indicated, correctly carried out in the prognostic perspective previously highlighted, is correct and the motivation on the point is adequate”. This is what they write the judges of the first criminal section of the Court of Cassation, in the sentence with which they rejected the appeal proposed by Tommaso Costa against the order of 6 November 2023 of the Court of Appeal of Catanzaro which declared inadmissible the request for review proposed by the 65-year-old against the sentence with which the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Reggio Calabria, on 12 May 2014, Costa’s life sentence confirmed in relation to the aggravated murder of Pasquale Simari.
Tommaso Costa, as summarized in the sentence of the “ermellini”, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Court of Assizes of Locri for the crime committed on July 26, 2005, in the square of Gioiosa Ionica, “by a man with his face uncovered who fired nine gunshots, all of which hit home, at the victim, who was chased and then finished off with a shot to the back of the head”. The sentences on the merits, that of Locri and then that of Reggio, based the declaration of responsibility on the statements of the witnesses heard during the investigations (some people present in the square and, specifically, two minors), on the identifications made and on the basis of some telephone interceptions between a witness, GA, and CSP, a person “sentenced for the crime of aiding and abetting in relation to the very same murder”.
In the sentences, the judges of merit indicated the motive, consisting of the insertion of the action in the logic of the contrast existing between the clans operating in the area, and the friendship with the Cordì clan that the victim had cultivated and that was not welcomed by other gangs..
The sentence became irrevocable with the ruling of the fifth section of the Court of Cassation dating back to 22 September 2015.
In the perspective proposed by the defense, new elements would require five witnesses to be heard and “therefore to proceed with a different reading of the entire compendium of evidence acquired which, moreover, the judges of merit had not already coherently and adequately evaluated at the time”. The Court of Appeal, after having proceeded to a verification of the entire reasoning followed by the judges of merit, highlighted that “the new evidence indicated is not such as to disarticulate the motivation of the conviction”.
The convicted person appealed against the decision of the judges of Catanzaro and, through his defense, argued that the law was violated and that there was a defect in the reasoning.
The defense complaints were deemed unfounded with consequent rejection of the appeal and confirmation of the sentence of conviction of Tommaso Costa for the Simari murder.