Dead in ambulance, trial begins, Spada doesn't want to be taken back

The trial of Luca Spada, known as 'Spadino', the 28-year-old from Meldola, former driver of the Red Cross, accused by the Prosecutor's Office of killing the 85-year-old Deanna Mambelli, a pensioner who died during a secondary transport from the Forlì hospital to a private clinic for post-surgery rehabilitation, on 25 November 2025, began this morning in front of the Court of Assizes of Forlì, presided over by judge Monica Galassi. Spada, in prison since April, has always said he is innocent.

He arrived in the courtroom shortly after 9, escorted by the carabinieri and penitentiary police officers. Casual light brown jacket, white shirt and trousers, Spada sat in the front row next to his lawyers, next to the cages for the prisoners where for the occasion, due to lack of space, some journalists were placed.

The 28-year-old asked not to be filmed: he looks down, until now he has never looked back at the courtroom, which is packed with journalists and cameramen. There are also many curious people looking out at the entrance door.

The chief prosecutor of Forlì, Enrico Cieri, and the prosecutor Andrea Marchini, who coordinated the investigations of the Nas carabinieri, suspect that Spada is responsible for five other cases, elderly patients transported on ambulances while he was on duty as a rescue driver and who he would have murdered, in the event of an accusation, by injecting air into the vein. Regarding Mambelli's death, there is a medical-legal opinion which identifies the cause of death as an embolism caused by an insufflation of air.