Nicola Tria, Lawyer for Chiara Petrolini, Speaks After First-Degree Sentencing at Parma Assize Court

Chiara Petrolini, a 22-year-old from Traversetolo, has been sentenced to 24 years and 3 months in prison by the Parma Assize Court for the premeditated double murder of her newborn children and concealment of their bodies.

The court delivered its verdict on April 24, 2026, finding Petrolini guilty of killing her two newborn sons, Domenico Matteo and Angelo Federico, shortly after their births on May 12, 2023, and August 7, 2024, respectively. The prosecution had requested a 26-year sentence, arguing that the deaths were premeditated and that Petrolini concealed the bodies by burying them in the garden of her family home in Vignale di Traversetolo, where she remained under house arrest with an electronic bracelet during the proceedings.

Defense lawyer Nicola Tria had argued for acquittal on the grounds of mental incapacity, stating that Petrolini “was not capable of understanding or willing” at the time of the acts. He cited a defense-commissioned psychiatric evaluation suggesting a “determining” mental impairment. The defense also alternatively sought acquittal for one of the two killings, claiming insufficient proof that one child was born alive and denying premeditation in the other case, proposing instead a charge of negligent conduct or, at most, eventual intent, with mitigating factors linked to her youth and psychological fragility.

The court rejected these arguments, upholding the prosecution’s case that Petrolini was fully responsible for the crimes. The bodies of the infants were discovered in the garden of her residence, the same location where she had been living under judicial supervision prior to the trial. The verdict marks the conclusion of the first-degree trial in the Parma Assize Court, with the possibility of appeal remaining open to both the defense and the prosecution.