Angela Querzè and Bruno Stefani both shed tears when they heard the words “life imprisonment” uttered by the chairman of the Court of Assizes. Sofia Stefani’s parents did not miss a single hearing, not even a single minute of the trial, in the hope that the Bologna judge would recognize the intentionality of Giampiero Gualandi, 64, in killing their daughter. Therefore, this is voluntary manslaughter.
Sofia was 33 years old when she was killed on May 16, 2024 by a gunshot to the face, fired in the office of the former Anzola local police commander with whom she was having an affair.
“When there is a life sentence and things like this happen, society has failed. But for Sofia, I am convinced that getting justice is the right thing. My daughter is no longer there, for us the grief continues and will continue throughout her life, but I believe that she deserves justice and therefore the sentence is fair,” said her tearful mother Angela, who after the sentence hugged the deputy prosecutor, Lucia Russo.
Therefore, the judges followed the direction of the prosecutor’s office, confirming only one aggravating factor, namely emotional ties (an insignificant reason was instead dropped). For the Court, this was a deliberate killing, not an accident, a shot accidentally fired during the struggle, as Gualandi and his defenders have always insisted, speaking of an “accidental tragedy.”
According to the Prosecutor’s Office reconstruction, Gualandi killed Sofia to save his marriage. His wife discovered the affair on April 30 and he swore to her that it was all over with the policewoman in early February. But that’s a lie. Messages obtained from Sofia’s phone show that the story continues until the day of the murder. And he began to insist on looking for Gualandi’s wife to reveal the truth to her.
“There was not a single day from April 30 onwards that Sofia did not try to contact him,” prosecutor Russo explained in his indictment. “He knew he wouldn’t give up.”
During the trial, the prosecutor’s office tried to reveal a portrait of a very unequal relationship. Sofia suffers from borderline personality disorder and is being treated with psychotropic drugs. According to prosecutors, Gualandi took advantage of her vulnerability by engaging in “cruel manipulation,” both professionally and sexually. He promised her that he would be her deputy when he took command, a prospect that all witnesses said was unrealistic given Sofia’s disciplinary history. But those promises, the prosecutor’s office said, kept him in bondage.
One of the most discussed elements is the sexual submission contract that Gualandi signed with Sofia. The defense argued that it was a “game”, a shared fantasy born of his love of the film ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. But for the prosecution, the contract was a “symptom of a power relationship” in which Gualandi was the one who dominated and Sofia was the one who obeyed. The civic party defined Sofia’s role as a “slave agent”.
Courtroom clashes between the prosecutor’s office and the defense were tough, with Assizes president Pasquale Liccardo taking sides on several occasions. Prosecutor Russo spoke of a trail of lies: “I can’t count how many versions Gualandi gave,” claiming that the defendant “lied to everyone.” Lawyers Claudio Benenati and Lorenzo Valgimigli rejected these accusations: “Gualandi always says the same thing: he attacked me, there was a fight, there were shots.”
The two lawyers had asked to reclassify the crime as involuntary manslaughter or premeditated murder, calling it an “undesirable tragedy.” However, the Court found this version to be unreliable. And when Gualandi apologized to Sofia’s parents last July, the mother answered clearly: “I didn’t even consider the question of forgiveness.”
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