(ANSA) - Rome, December 3 - A Roman man who shot and killed
personal trainer Luca Sacchi outside a Rome pub last month after
a drugs deal went wrong said Tuesday he had not meant to kill
him.
"I didn't want to kill anyone, it was the first time I had
handled a gun," said Valerio Del Grosso in a statement to
prosecutors.
Del Grosso availed himself of his right not to answer
questions.
The other man arrested in the initial stages of the probe,
Paolo Pirino, also chose not to answer questions.
On Monday Carabinieri police in Rome found 31 grams of
cocaine in Pirino's car.
Police found the drugs, which were divided into bags and
hidden in the vehicle's rear wheel well, during a search ordered
by the prosecutor's office.
Pirino is one of the two persons who have been charged in
connection with the murder, which took place on the night of
October 23 and initially raised alarm over lawlessness in the
Italian capital.
Investigators are trying to reconstruct the roles played by
the people at the scene of the crime that evening on Via Franco
Bartoloni, starting from Giovanni Princi, a man with a criminal
record who was Sacchi's friend.
Princi seems to have been in contact with a network of drug
pushers that included Valerio Del Grosso and Paolo Pirino, who
are accused of being accomplices to murder.
Del Grosso is said to have pulled the trigger, shooting
Sacchi in the head.
On Friday the Ukrainian girlfriend of the personal trainer
whose murder sparked concern over lawlessness in the Italian
capital was placed under investigation in a drugs probe.
Anastasiya Kylemnyk, the 25-year-old girlfriend of
24-year-old Sacchi, initially told police she had been attacked
with a baseball bat and Sacchi was shot in the head after trying
to defend her near the pub, the John Cabot.
But police subsequently found a large amount of money in her
backpack.
Police said Friday they found 70,000 euros in her backpack.
They said it was intended to be used to buy 15 kilogrammes of
drugs.
"She had a central role in the drugs deal," said the
preliminary investigations judge.
Prosecutors said there was "no evidence" that Sacchi knew
about the drugs deal.
The woman again refused to collaborate with prosecutors on
Friday.
"Anastasia shows with her surprising refusal of all
collaboration with investigative organs to bring her boyfriend's
murderers to justice her clear, predominant desire to preserve
the criminal ties acquired in the drugs underworld, with which
she does not intend to break off links," the prosecutors said.
"If Anastasia did wrong she should pay for it," said Sacchi's
parents.
Investigators say the murder was a consequence of the deal
going wrong, but the exact dynamic is still not known.
Prosecutors served five detention warrants in the case on
Friday including one for Kylemnyk who must now report to a
Carabinieri barracks every day.
Her home in the capital, where she lives with her parents,
was searched.
A 24-year-old man, a friend of Sacchi's who was not named and
who was allegedly in on the deal, was among the five served
detention warrants.
Sacchi shooter says didn't mean to kill
Valerio Del Grosso says 'never handled gun before'