Defence reports filed in Pavia
Lawyers for Andrea Sempio, the 38-year-old who is the sole suspect in the new Pavia investigation into the Garlasco murder, handed their expert reports to the Pavia prosecutor's office on 16 October. Angela Taccia and Liborio Cataliotti filed the material two days before the 18 October deadline, when every party may submit further analyses. The reports respond to the prosecution's latest findings, dated 28 September, and AGI describes them as the final stage before an expected request that Sempio be sent to trial. After leaving the Pavia courthouse, where she had deposited video files and listened to more wiretaps, Taccia called a trial request 'a very probable hypothesis'.
Andrea Sempio cannot be kept under investigation for life. We might as well go to trial and establish the facts once and for all.
The shoe print
Experts Armando Palmegiani and Giacomo De Angelis argue that the print found on the bathroom floor matches a size 40 shoe rather than a 42. Size 42 is the size Alberto Stasi wears, according to the reports, while Sempio says he wears a 44 and therefore could not have left the mark. The experts used a 3D scan and a digital overlay of 'trace 6' with a scaled prototype, and they say the crime scene print corresponds more closely to the 40. The reports count 25 traces, or groups of traces, from one stud-patterned sole spread across the ground floor. They also say the pattern is generic and widely sold, so it identifies a type of shoe rather than one specific pair. Fanpage reports that the prosecution's consultant, Cristina Cattaneo, considers the print compatible with Sempio's foot as well, a point the defence rejects.
If Andrea's foot is incompatible with the killer's footprint, it follows that he was not the one.
Print 33 and the 2007 blood test
Marina Baldi, Armando Palmegiani and Katia Sartori conclude that there is no blood in trace 33, the mark on a cellar wall in the villa. They say the negative OBTI blood test carried out in 2007 was correct, citing practical tests on wall panels with graded blood dilutions. A separate report addresses a print on the staircase wall that was revealed with ninhydrin. It notes a similar mark on the fifth or sixth step that gave the same reaction, and it argues that such eccrine deposits can exist before a crime. Open reports that the experts see the ninhydrin reaction as possibly caused by ordinary sweat. The defence says it is ready to test this point at an evidentiary hearing, known in Italy as an incidente probatorio.
DNA under the nails
Carlo Previderè and Pierangela Grignani, the experts commissioned by the defence, write that the Y-chromosome haplotype identifies a paternal lineage rather than a person. They add that no data show how or when the material was deposited. Open reports that the defence sees only a partial match between the profile and Sempio, and that it points to the genetic profile of another man who has never been identified.
Privacy sanctions and what comes next
The Garante per la Privacy has imposed sanctions for publishing photos of the victim's body, following a complaint by the victim's parents, who are represented by lawyer Gianluigi Tizzoni, according to Open. Il Messaggero writes that the defence reports, which aim to show Sempio was absent from the scene, also raise serious doubts about the conviction of Alberto Stasi, the only person convicted in final judgment of the murder. Stasi's defence plans to request a review of the trial in Brescia. Taccia says a trial would establish the facts, since Sempio cannot remain under investigation indefinitely. The timeline below sets out the dates the sources give.
- Pavia prosecutors issue their latest findings in the investigation
- Defence reports are filed at the Pavia prosecutor's office
- Deadline for all parties to submit further analyses