Femicide Ilaria Sula, waiting for the sentence in the trial of Mark Samson

The self-confessed man stabbed the 22-year-old student to death on March 25, 2025, then got rid of the body by putting it in a suitcase and throwing it into a cliff in the Capranica Prenestina area, where it was found on April 2. The Rome Prosecutor's Office asked for a life sentence, arguing that the murder "was coldly planned and executed", while for the defense "it was a crime of impulse"

The first degree sentence is expected today in the trial of Mark Samson, who confessed to the murder of Ilaria Sula, a 22-year-old student whom the man stabbed to death on 25 March last year. The attack took place in Samson's apartment in via Homs, in the African neighborhood of Rome. After hitting her, the young man got rid of the body - also thanks to the help of his mother who agreed to a two-year sentence for complicity in concealment - by placing it in a suitcase and throwing it down a cliff in the Capranica Prenestina area, where it was found on 2 April after a week of searches. Samson is accused of voluntary homicide with the aggravating circumstances of premeditation, futile motives, emotional relationship with the victim and concealment of a corpse.

The Prosecutor's Office requested a life sentence for Samson

Last May 19, the Rome Prosecutor's Office requested a life sentence for Samson. During the indictment, the prosecutors said that Ilaria Sula's murder "was coldly planned and executed". "Samson summoned Ilaria to an ambush in his house. Ilaria was punched and then stabbed", explained deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini, adding that the young man "had no mercy as he punched her and then stabbed her. He had no mercy on her when he threw her away like rubbish. He had no mercy on Ilaria because after killing her he denigrated and offended her. He had no mercy when afterwards the murder went to eat a piadina". For prosecutor Maria Perna, Samson is a subject "used to lying, manipulative, hypocritical. He had trapped Sula in a relationship, he had control of her life" and the murder was "a massacre".

For Samson's defense it was a crime of impulse

Last June 23, however, Samson's defense team spoke in the Rebibbia bunker courtroom, represented by the lawyers Paolo Foti and Alessandro Pillitu, who underlined that, in their opinion, the aggravating circumstances contested by the Rome Prosecutor's Office did not exist. In particular that of premeditation: "Samson is undoubtedly guilty and must pay - said the lawyer Foti - but his was a crime of impulse, linked to a choleric rage that erupted in his already intoxicated mind. The needs of truth and justice - said the lawyer addressing the court - are linked to that of social recovery which cannot be denied to anyone". Samson's defenders also asked for the recognition of the generic extenuating circumstances connected "to his age, to his lack of criminal record, but also because he tried to provide useful elements to reconstruct this tragic story".