Young man who stabbed chef Cuttaia’s son sentenced in Licata

Two years and 10 months of imprisonment for the 17-year-old boy arrested last July and now found guilty of attempted aggravated murder against the son of the Michelin-starred chef Pino Cuttaia. The incident occurred in Licata, in the province of Agrigento. The sentence was given by the judge for preliminary hearings of the juvenile court, Antonina Pardo, who took into account, issuing a lighter sentence, the partial incapacity to understand and will regarding the fact ascertained by a psychiatric evaluation. The request for it was made by the defenders of the young defendant, lawyers Salvatore Manganello and Alberto Caffarello. The public prosecutor Massimo Russo had requested a sentence of 4 years and 10 months.

The boy, who will turn 18 in a couple of months, as determined by the trial, allegedly used a cutting weapon to strike him three times. A slash to the side, in particular, caused a ruptured spleen and punctured pleura that required surgery. The young man survived after weeks of hospitalization, even ending up in intensive care. The attempted murder, which occurred on the night between July 1st and 2nd, the day of his twenty-fourth birthday, was sparked by a dispute over the return of a scooter that the seventeen-year-old had allegedly stolen from Cuttaia’s brother.

The assault took place outside a beach resort in Mollarella. The accused has always maintained that he was first attacked by Cuttaia and his friends in the initial phase of the incident. Shortly after, there was a second altercation but, according to the defense’s version, which was not deemed credible by the judge, he did not intend to strike the blow and it was an accident due to agitation.