Cinzia Dal Pino, a beach-resort entrepreneur, was sentenced to 18 years after surveillance footage showed her repeatedly striking Noureddine Mezgui with her car in Viareggio on Sept. 8, 2024. Dal Pino was arrested the following day and convicted of voluntary manslaughter on June 11. She will remain under house arrest for now and plans to appeal, while restorative-justice talks could affect the final outcome.
Italian Socialite Sentenced to 18 Years After Surveillance Video Shows Her Run Down Man Who Stole Her Bag
Police vehicle at the trial of Cinzia Dal PinoCredit: Aleandro Biagianti/AGF/Shutterstock
An Italian court on Thursday sentenced Cinzia Dal Pino, a beach-resort entrepreneur, to 18 years after surveillance footage showed her repeatedly striking a man with her SUV following a theft in Viareggio.
The incident occurred on Sept. 8, 2024, when surveillance video appears to show Dal Pino pursuing Noureddine Mezgui — described by authorities as a homeless Moroccan national — and hitting him multiple times before retrieving a bag investigators say he had taken. Dal Pino was arrested the next day while praying in a nearby church, according to reports from the Italian news agency ANSA.
Viareggio, ItalyCredit: Getty
During the court proceedings, Dal Pino maintained she had felt threatened and pursued Mezgui because the bag contained sensitive personal items. She told Corriere della Sera that the bag held "my documents, my watch, and a note with all the passwords to my bank accounts and other important logins," and that she intended only to stop him, not to kill him.
"I drove toward him, toward the sidewalk. I didn't want to kill him, just knock him down so I could stop him — I didn't even realize I'd hit him," Dal Pino said at an earlier hearing.
Prosecutors argued Dal Pino acted with "excessive revenge" and had sought a life sentence; her defense asked the court to downgrade the charge to a form of negligent self-defense. The court ultimately convicted her of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated by cruelty.
Trial of Cinzia Dal Pino in Lucca, ItalyCredit: Aleandro Biagianti/AGF/Shutterstock
The judge allowed Dal Pino to serve the 18-year term under house arrest for the time being; if the conviction is upheld at a final hearing she could be required to serve the remainder of the sentence in prison. Dal Pino's lawyer has announced plans to appeal.
A lawyer for Mezgui's family said the verdict was "the decision we've been waiting for," and Italian outlets report that a process of restorative justice has begun — a procedure that, if both parties agree, can lead to a reduced sentence under Italian law.
The case has drawn international attention because of the graphic surveillance footage, the disparity in social status between defendant and victim, and the broader legal and ethical questions it raises about self-defense, proportionality and punishment in theft-related confrontations.
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