A Bucks County woman plead guilty on Monday for the murder of her common law husband just minutes into the first day of the trial. She told the judge she did not want to continue with the trial and wanted to take a plea deal instead. NBC10’s Deanna Durante has more on the case.
A Hilltown Township woman pleaded guilty on Monday to her role in the 2022 death of her partner, the owner of a pizza restaurant in Chalfont.
On Monday, Anna Maria Tolomello, 48, pleaded guilty to third degree murder charges involving the death of her partner, Giovanni Gallina, 65, on March 16 of 2022.
According to police, Tolomello had previously admitted to investigators that she shot Gallina -- her common-law partner -- in the head and kept his body wrapped in a tarp and comforter in a bedroom of their Hilltown Township home.
She then, officials claim, had a hole dug in her property in order to "bury one or more items."
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Tolomello and Gallina owned Pina’s Pizzeria in Chalfont, court documents note.
Tolomello's crimes came to light, court documents note, after a witness told police they were contacted by Tolomello three days after Gallina's death asking for them to dig a hole near her driveway so she could "bury one or more items," in her yard.
Working with police, that witness dug a hole at Tolomello's home -- she paid $350 in cash for the service -- and was recorded telling the witness that her partner was "away" when asked about his whereabouts, according to court documents.
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Later, during a search of Tolomello's home, police said, officers discovered Gallina's body -- wrapped in bloody bedclothes, and his head covered by a black garbage bag -- in a bedroom, court documents note.
According to law enforcement officials, police believe by the time Gallina's body was discovered by officials, it had been hidden in the home for 13 days.
Initially, Tolomello told police she shot Gallina in the head in self defense as he was trying to choke her on their bed, court documents claim. Her defense team had also previously made that same argument.
However, prosecutors said that Gallina was shot in the back of the head.
Court documents also claim that Tolomello told police that she disposed of the mattress in the dumpster of the pizza shop, tried to clean the blood on the carpet in the home, wiped down the gun to get rid of fingerprints and got rid of the spent and unspent bullet casings.
Tolomello's sentencing has been differed for 60 days.
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