Milan prosecutors on Friday
requested fast-track murder indictments for a warehouseman and
his son on charges they stabbed and beat their downstairs
neighbour to death with a hammer because he repeatedly
complained about a crying infant and a barking dog.
Gaetano Teofilo, 46, and his 18-year-old son Mattia
allegedly killed Stefano Epis, whose body was found March 13 in
his apartment in Milan.
Prosecutors say Teofilo and his son used a hammer and a
flick knife to silence Epis definitively after he screamed
insults at them for two hours through a flimsy bathroom
wall.
The father and son confessed to the murder when arrested
March 20. Mattia Teofilo subsequently retracted his confession,
saying he was asleep at the time of the murder. His father then
claimed to have acted alone.
Both are charged with murder aggravated by cruelty and
futile motives.
Under Italy's fast-track trial procedure, defendants get
their sentences reduced by a third if found guilty.
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