Murder at Villa Pamphili: Kaufmann sentenced to life imprisonment

“Kaufmann is cold, calculating, manipulative and a pathological narcissist, but he is not of unsound mind. He has a strong and distinctive personality, but he is a fraud.” The judges of the First Court of Assizes in Rome upheld the prosecution’s submissions, which had described Francis Kaufmann in these terms, sentencing him tolife imprisonment, with daytime solitary confinement for three years, the man accused of the double murder of his partner Anastasia Trofimova and his 11-month-old daughter Andromeda, who were found dead on 7 June last year at Villa Pamphili. 

Kaufmann, alias Rexal Ford, who had fled to Greece after the events, is being charged by the public prosecutors at Piazzale Clodio – in the investigation coordinated by Deputy Public Prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini together with Public Prosecutor Antonio Verdi – have charged Kaufmann with double murder, aggravated by futile and despicable motives, the victim’s reduced capacity to defend himself, the emotional relationship with his partner and the family ties regarding his daughter, as well as the concealment of a body. The judgement upholds the prosecution’s requests. ‘Kaufmann is cold, calculating, manipulative and a pathological narcissist, but he is not incapable of understanding or exercising his will. He has a strong and distinctive personality, but he is a fraud,’ the prosecutor emphasised in his closing speech at the last hearing.

An “impostor” who managed to “fool” even the police officers who had stopped him whilst he was drunk on the street with his daughter, and who, “had they done their job properly, the little girl might still be alive”, said the prosecutor.

The defence lawyer, Paolo Foti, had, however, called this morning during his closing speech for Kaufmann to be acquitted on both counts on the grounds that he had not committed the offence, albeit with some reservation. Kaufmann’s trial had been suspended last May after the court ordered the defendant to undergo a course of medication, and resumed just over a month later when the judges deemed his mental and physical condition suitable for imprisonment. Last October, the judges then rejected the defence’s latest application, which had sought a new expert assessment to evaluate the defendant’s mental capacity. Today, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.