Woman gets life for husband’s murder

husband’s murder

By Patrick Decloitre

The “Picchi case” which caused enormous shock in the small Vanuatu capital Port Vila last year, finally came to a conclusion last December in the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Charles Vaudin d’lmecourt, sentenced Luciana Picchi, 29, to life imprisonment for the murder of her husband Franco, 51, on November 28, 1994, in what he described as “particularly

gruesome” circumstances.

The court heard that in the early hours of November 29, 1994, the body of an Italian builder, Franco Picchi, bearing strangulation marks and heavy skull dam age, was found at the bottom of a slope on the outskirts of Port Vila, at the back of his

utility truck.

According to Public Prosecutor John Baxter-Wright, this was “the most violent crime of an expatriate since (the island

state’s) independence”.

Last April, local police officers, with the help of Australian Federal Police crim inal and forensic officers, stumbled on two men, Tui George Saipir and Berry Max Jimmy (employees of Picchi’s building company at the time), who admitted taking part in the crime against Franco Picchi.

By that time, the victim’s widow, Luciana Picchi, had left Vanuatu on a sail ing boat, with other Italians and her boyfriend at the time.

She was arrested in Singapore the same month with the help of Interpol, and an extradition request was immediately filed by Vanuatu’s Attorney-General Patrick Ellum. Vanuatu authorities had to wait for another three months for their request to eventuate. But in early July, the Italian widow was flown back to Vanuatu, under local police escort to answer a charge of the premeditated murder of her husband Franco.

The trial started in early October, a case

handled by Chief Justice Charles Vaudin d’lmecourt. It was to last nearly two full months.

During the first days of hearings, the case and circumstances surrounding it, according to Public Prosecutor John Baxter-Wright, seemed to be clear.

“Franco became uncon trollable with his follies with gambling and women.”

The court was told that on the evening of the murder, in the couple’s house, the woman persuaded her husband to let him self be tied to a chair and be blindfolded.

She told him she wanted to show him a “magic trick”. Franco became involved in the “game’. But, Mrs Picchi’s two ni- Vanuatu accomplices, Tui George Saipir and Berry Max Jimmy, were waiting out side the house in the dark. They were wearing “rasta” wigs and were armed with traditional wooden clubs, bought in town by Mrs Picchi’s housegirl the same morn ing. Once inside, the two men began club bing the Italian builder to death.

While the killing took place, the house girl, Sarah Salome, had been ordered to take the couple’s young boy, Francesco, 4, to a locked bedroom in the house. Orders were also given to turn the television vol ume up, to cover Picchi’s screams.

The prosecution put to the Supreme Court that the corpse was then thoroughly washed, then disposed of at the back of Picchi’s pick-up truck which was pushed

down a slope at nearby Bellevue district.

The court also heard that some months earlier, Mrs Picchi had tried to buy the ser vices of a local a magic man called Ezra.

She first asked him to provide her with a beverage that would cure her husband of womanising, violating her and heavy gam

bling.

She then asked Ezra for a stronger cure: a poison that would enable her to get rid of her husband once and for all. But the old man, although attracted by financial rewards offered by Mrs Picchi, did not seem to be in a position to provide either potions.

Evidence given by her accomplices,

who rapidly admitted the facts as soon as they were arrested, were particularly

damning.

All three accomplices (Tui, Berri and Salome) attested Luciana Picchi was using a blood pressure machine to check if her husband was dead while he lay on the floor, unconscious.

The defence stated the dates and time mentioned by Baxter-Wright did not cor roborate other witnesses’ statements, according to which the victim would have been seen in a local night-club the same night, but later than the time stated by the

public prosecutor.

But the judge did not take into account evidence given by some witnesses, neither did he request evidence from individuals based in Port Vila who were with the accused when she was arrested in

Singapore last April.

“He’s made up his mind a long time ago”, a source close to the defence said.

Mrs Picchi, told the court the day before the verdict that she was faced with a brutal, unfaithful and gambling husband.

"I partook in this because one arrives at a point when it is no longer possible.

Franco became uncontrollable with his fol lies with gambling and women and it went on day and night, as soon as the casino was

open he was there. My family and I had lent money to Franco during my last visit to Italy, and because I could not see a future for my son and also because of the violence, I was being hit every day. I let myself get involved in this fantasy after listening to all the accounts.

“By that time, I could not live like this, I had to think of my son’s future. You can not gamble away one million vatu (USD8800) an evening. I remember saying Franco was having a crisis at gambling. He had lost a lot of money and thought I was bringing him bad luck. He went out at 8.30 pm and said “if I lose. I’ll kill you”.

It was in the light of his previous behaviour that I took him seriously. It was similar to a previous threat made in Italy: “If I lose, it will be your problem when I come back”. And when he came back he burnt me then (with cigarettes).”

But the judge’s verdict did not find any mitigating circumstances. And dTmecourt ruled the woman had premeditated the murder. He said she had seduced Tui, then promised she would marry him if he helped her get rid of her husband, and she offered a million vatu to Berri for taking part in the murder. DTmecourt, however, found the three accomplices had been influenced by Luciana Picchi.

“I have no doubt at all that Tui, Berri and Sarah were just ordinary, good and kind ni-Vanuatu people, who got them selves involved in your evil plan to kill your husband because of you. If you had not influenced Tui and Sarah and through Tui, Berri, in the way that you did, the would probably never have got involved in any sort of crime at all. It was your evil influence over them that led those three into this terrible murder. I have no doubt that left to your own devices, you would kill again if it suited you. You are manipu lative in excess. You have caused great dis tress around you. You have destroyed not only your husband’s life, but that of at least three others who fell under you spell. Your learned counsel urged the court to consid er a finite sentence in your case and I will, at least to some extent. You are fortunate indeed that there is not a mandatory death sentence for this kind of killing in Vanuatu”, dTmecourt told Mrs Picchi on the day of the verdict.

To the defence lawyer who pointed out

that four-year old Francesco would need his mother, dTmecourt said “he is better off being brought up by your sister in the relative safety of a normal family”.

“You should not be considered for release before you have served at least 30 years, when hopefully you will be too old to be able to take any other life and even then I have my doubts”, dTmecourt went on.

Tui and Berri were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment each.

“With good behaviour a third will be taken off’, the judge added.

“You have both pleaded guilty to this dreadful crime. This is, in itself, a consid erable mitigation. You have both, I accept, shown considerable remorse. You have both assisted the court to the extent that Luciana Picchi would probably never have been brought to justice without your help.

She would have probably been free to kill

again”.

The housemaid, Sarah Salome, will serve 12 years in jail.

All four are currently serving their sen tence in the tiny jail of Port Vila. ■