Italian jeweler, 72, sentenced to 14 years 9 months for killing fleeing robbers

After a robbery at his jewelry store, owner Mario Roggero shot at the fleeing perpetrators, one of whom died. Now Roggero must go to prison.

Publication date: July 22, 2026 — 1:46 PM

No word of regret for the dead: Mario Roggero upon his arrival at Bollate prison on July 17, 2026. Photo: Nicola Marfisi/agf/imago

By Michael Braun

The door at the back exit of the jewelry store opens. Three men step out, walking quickly toward a car parked a few meters away. They have just robbed the jewelry store; one holds the backpack with the loot in his hand. A few seconds later, the door opens again, a man rushes out, a pistol in his hand.

It is the jeweler, Mario Roggero. As soon as he reaches the car, he opens fire on the robbery perpetrators who have just gotten in. Two of them try to flee, but Roggero stays on their heels, emptying the entire magazine. He then kicks one of the hit and fallen robbers several times violently in the head and back.

In the end, Roggero shot two men dead; one survived injured. It was April 28, 2021, late afternoon, in the idyllic 2,000-soul village of Grinzane Cavour, about 50 kilometers south of Turin, when a video surveillance camera recorded the entire event.

These recordings are now circulating through all Italian media, because last week the 72-year-old jeweler was sentenced in the final instance by the Court of Cassation in Rome to 14 years and 9 months in prison for manslaughter.

Roggero: "We Are the Real Victims"

Like the lower courts — first in Asti, then in Turin — Italy's highest court did not see one thing as given: self-defense. The defendant had always claimed this, but the appeals court in Turin had written in its ruling: "Neither Roggero nor his family members (during the robbery, his wife and a daughter were also in the store; editor's note) were exposed to the concrete danger of an attack" when Roggero shot. After all, the robbers had fled.

Roggero himself sees it differently. He never expressed a word of regret for the dead. On the contrary. When asked if he wanted to apologize, he countered: "None of the family members (of the dead; editor's note) ever said, sorry that we have a wayward son."

"We are the real victims" — namely he and his family: That is how the jewelry dealer continued even now, before he began his prison sentence on Friday, which he must serve "just because I defended myself and my family."

The courts were not convinced by this pitiless attitude. But he succeeded in one thing: He became the loudly celebrated martyr of the right wing governing in Rome under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

As soon as the verdict was announced, a real barrage began. Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing populist, xenophobic Lega and Deputy Prime Minister, started it off. He immediately addressed "an appeal directly to President Sergio Mattarella" to pardon the man convicted of manslaughter, because Roggero "does not deserve to share a prison cell with real criminals."

Roggero Is an Upstanding Man

On the same day, parliamentarians from all factions of the right-wing coalition in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate began collecting signatures for the same goal: the demand for a pardon for Roggero. In the Senate, representatives of the Lega held up photos of the convicted man with the words "libero subito" — free immediately. Alberto Cirio, the president of the Piedmont region — where the town of Grinzane Cavour is located — assured in turn: "Piedmont will not leave him alone."

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto launched an open attack on the judiciary. "Was the law applied? Probably: Yes," he commented. "Is it right? For me: No." Because this shows "a jurisprudence that interprets laws to the point of turning them upside down."

An "uomo perbene" — an upstanding man — is now being imprisoned for years.