A husband who brutally machine-gunned his wife and daughter to death in Italy has avoided a life sentence after a judge ruled he had “understandably human motives”.
Salvatore Montefusco, 70, shot his wife Gabriela Trandafir, 47, and their daughter, Renata, 22, in June 2022 in front of the couple’s young son.
But instead of being sentenced to life imprisonment, as requested by the Prosecutor’s Office in the case of the double femicide, Montefusco was sentenced to only thirty years in prison due to “the human understandability of the motives that pushed the author to commit the crime.”
The Modena Criminal Court was reportedly lenient with the killer after explaining that he had turned 70 with no criminal record and would not have carried out the heinous crime “if he had not been driven by the disastrous family dynamics that developed.” had triggered over time”.
The Modena Prosecutor’s Office had requested a life sentence after the cruel murder, but on October 9 the judges ruled out premeditation and abject and useless motives, having acted with cruelty and considering that the ill-treatment was absorbed in the murder, reports Corriere Di Bologna.
The sentence reveals in more than 200 pages how the shooting occurred after Montefusco experienced several confrontations with the two women, filing mutual complaints.
According to the judges, the motive for the double murder was “the psychological state of deep discomfort, humiliation and enormous frustration experienced by the accused.”
This was due to “the climate of very high conflict that had been created within the marital family and the specific eventuality that he himself would have to leave the family home.”
Salvatore Montefusco, 70, murdered both his wife and his young daughter in June 2022. This image is published by Italian media that claim he is the murderer.

Gabriela Trandafir, 47, right, and Renata, 22, left, were murdered by the man who was sentenced to 30 years in prison instead of life in prison.
The judges reportedly considered it “plausible” that the fact that his daughter repeatedly told Montefusco that she was leaving the family home, “caused in his soul, as he himself has repeatedly emphasized, that emotional and existential blackout that would have led him ‘Run to get the gun.’
The firearm was reportedly located just a few feet away and, in a moment of rage, he grabbed it and killed his daughter and wife.
According to the Italian report, Montefusco had previously threatened to kill the couple.
The lawyer representing the family of the two victims, Barbara Iannuccelli, was stunned by the sentence.
“The young victim Renata Trandafir wanted to be a lawyer so she could defend herself from the daily violence that she and her mother had to endure,” he said.
‘Today he was spared the experience of having to understand why the ruthless murderer of two unprotected women could benefit from such benevolence.
“Generic mitigating circumstances that eliminate any aggravating circumstances for… human understanding,” he said, quoting the phrase, “we are all sailing in a sea of strong disbelief.”