An Italian socialite has been sentenced to 18 years after prosecutors said she chased down a man who stole her bag and fatally hit him with her car.
Cinzia Dal Pino, a beach resort entrepreneur in her sixties, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Noureddine Mezgui, a homeless Moroccan national, in the seaside town of Viareggio, Italy.
The deadly incident happened on Sept. 8, 2024, more than 200 miles north of Rome.
According to local reports, surveillance footage appeared to show Dal Pino chasing Mezgui with her car after he allegedly stole her bag.
She was accused of hitting him multiple times with the vehicle before getting out, retrieving the bag and driving away.
Dal Pino was arrested the next day while praying inside a nearby church, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
During a previous court appearance, Dal Pino claimed Mezgui had “run” at her after she placed her bag on the passenger seat of her car. She said she feared he was going to hurt her.
She told the court she followed him because the bag contained important personal items.
“I had everything in my bag,” she said, according to Corriere della Sera. “My documents, my watch, and a note with all the passwords to my bank accounts and other important logins.”
“I didn’t want that man to be able to trace them,” she added.
Dal Pino admitted she drove toward him near the sidewalk but insisted she did not mean to kill him.
“I didn’t want to kill him, just knock him down so I could stop him,” she said. “I didn’t even realize I’d hit him.”
She claimed that after the first maneuver, she thought Mezgui was getting back up.
“I didn’t think I’d killed him,” she said.
Prosecutors had pushed for a life sentence, arguing that Dal Pino had run Mezgui down in an act of “excessive revenge.”
Her defense team asked the court to reduce the charge to “negligent excess of self-defense.”
Dal Pino appeared in court on Thursday, June 11, alongside her daughter as she faced the voluntary manslaughter charge, which had been aggravated by cruelty.
The court sentenced her to 18 years but ruled that she can serve the sentence under house arrest for now.
If the conviction is upheld at a final hearing, she could be sent to prison to serve the remainder of her sentence, according to ANSA.
Dal Pino’s lawyer said she plans to appeal.
One lawyer for Mezgui’s family said the verdict was “the decision we’ve been waiting for.”
Reports said a restorative justice process has also begun, which could potentially reduce Dal Pino’s sentence if both sides reach an agreement.