A Milan appeals court on Tuesday
sentenced Giovanni Antonio Rasero to 26 years in prison for the
March 2010 murder of eight-month-old Alessandro Mathas. The
court also sentenced the defendant to pay 15,000 euros in
damages to each of the child's maternal grandparents, who are
civil plaintiffs in the case. The prosecution had requested life
in prison. Today's ruling upholds Rasero's conviction in a court
of first instance. The court found Rasero guilty of torturing
and killing his girlfriend Katherina Mathas' baby on the night
between March 15 and 16, 2010. The child's mother in 2014 was
acquitted of murder charges but was sentenced to four years in
prison for abandonment of a minor resulting in death, because
she left her baby with Rasero for an hour and a half while she
went out to purchase cocaine. Traces of his DNA were later found
in bite marks on the child's body. Rasero reiterated his
innocence prior to sentencing, telling the court he would never
take drugs in the presence of a child, much less harm one.
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