Dead in ambulance, the Court allows autopsies on the body of Deanna Mambelli in Spada's trial

BOLOGNA – The records of the two autopsies on the body of 85-year-old Deanna Mambelli, who died during an ambulance transport, will be admitted in the trial underway in Forlì against the former Red Cross driver Luca Spada. The Court of Assizes decided this during the second hearing, rejecting the request for nullity, advanced by the 27-year-old's lawyers, for failure to notify the results of the medical-legal investigations on the elderly woman's body, which took place on 25 and 26 November 2025.

The Court reasoned that regarding the autopsy of the 25th, carried out a few hours after the death to look for air in the old woman's organs, there was no need to notify Spada, as he was not under investigation at that time. For the subsequent autopsy, the Court believes that, as underlined by the public prosecution (prosecutor Andrea Marchini and Prosecutor Enrico Cieri), all legal procedures were correctly carried out, with the sending of a certified email to Spada's defender, to Spada himself and with the failed attempt by the police force to notify the defense lawyer by reaching him in his office.

However, the defense's request (lawyers Marco Martines and Gloria Parigi) not to acquire the minutes of the investigating judge's interrogation of Spada was accepted, leaving the formation or otherwise of any evidence to the courtroom debate. "The Court's decision to admit the autopsy documents into the hearing - commented the lawyer Martines - is a strong incentive for us. We are certain that we will be able to technically dismantle this documentation in the courtroom".

Of the over 100 requests for the admissibility of witnesses, the Court decided for a robust pruning of these testimonies, rejecting, in particular, those requested by the civil party (lawyer Max Starni) who represents the victim's children and also requested the admission of all the relatives of five other suspicious deaths, which occurred between February and November 2025, for which Spada is under investigation. The hearing will continue in the afternoon with the examination of the first witnesses admitted to the hearing.