A teenager told a court how he tried in vain to stop a mother-of-four being repeatedly stabbed by her husband before he slit her throat.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said yesterday he kicked builder Calogero Ricotta, now 64, and hit him in the face with a broom in a bid to stop him attacking his wife Maria Nugara.
He also described how Mrs Nugara’s son Giuseppe Morreale, 29, jumped on Ricotta’s back to defend her and ended up being stabbed in the abdomen.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how Mrs Nugara and her son, born during an earlier marriage, died from knife injuries in their £1 million detached home in Ugley, Essex.
Ricotta denied wielding a knife in the incident, which took place on May 28 last year just hours after solicitors for Mrs Nugara emailed him with documents to begin divorcing him after 15 years marriage.
He claims the injuries happened after his stepson Mr Morreale attacked him with a knife in their living room while he was arguing with his wife, and he shielded himself with her body.
But the teenager dismissed the story and claimed he saw Ricotta stabbing his wife before Mr Morreale came into the room.
The youth said Mrs Nugara had just returned from visiting her older daughter when her husband demanded to speak to her. He described how she initially refused to speak to him before following him into the living room.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said yesterday he kicked builder Calogero Ricotta (right), now 64, and hit him in the face with a broom in a bid to stop him attacking his wife Maria Nugara (left)
Mrs Nugara, 54, and her son Guiseppe Morreale (left), 29, were both killed in the incident on May 28
The teenager went to investigate after hearing Mrs Nugara screaming for help around ten to 20 seconds later.
He described seeing her ‘pinned’ against a sofa with Sicilian-born Ricotta holding one hand on her chest and ‘a knife in the other’ while he stabbed her repeatedly.
Graham Trembath KC told him: ‘I suggest at no point did he have a knife when he was in the sitting room. Do you agree with that? I suggest the whole time he never had a knife.’
But the youth insisted: ‘He had a knife. I only saw one knife.’
Mr Trembath went on to suggest that Ricotta did not ‘at any time’ stab his wife, but the teenager replied: ‘Yes he did.’
The teenager claimed that Mr Morreale only rushed downstairs in his boxer shorts around ten seconds after he and another woman in the house called for him to help.
He denied that Mr Morreale had a knife and said he heard him shout, ‘I have been stabbed’ after he jumped on his stepfather’s back.
The youth said he saw Mr Morreale lying still on the floor with a knife wound and Ricotta kneeling on his wife while he ‘slit her throat’.
He described how he kicked Ricotta in the face before rushing to get a broom and using it to hit him in the face again, and fleeing outside to wait for police who had been called by the other woman in the house.
Mr Trembath suggested the incident happened as Ricotta and his wife were having a blazing row, and Mr Morreale rushed downstairs with a knife.
He added: ‘Her injuries must have been caused by Giuseppe thrashing around with the knife.’
The teenager, who suffered an injured hand in the incident, repeatedly replied: ‘No’, and insisted it was Ricotta who had the knife.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how Mrs Nugara (pictured with Ricotta) and her son, born during an earlier marriage, died from knife injuries in their £1 million detached home in Ugley, Essex
Giuseppe Morreale is said to have run downstairs and jumped on Ricotta’s back in a bid to protect his mother
Prosecutor Simon Spence KC said Ricotta had made earlier threats to harm his wife, saying at a family Christmas gathering: ‘If she doesn’t listen to me, I will cut her throat like a sheep and put her in a hole.’
Mrs Nugara was said to be ‘petrified’ of her husband, and revealed to a friend that he had told her ‘Dead or alive, you are not leaving this marriage’, the court heard.
The jury heard how she suffered 14 stab wounds and 44 incise wounds to her body, her front, sides, hands and back.
One ‘gaping incise wound’ which cut through her voice box and both jugular veins and a carotid artery in her neck would have ’caused uncontrollable blood loss and rapid death’, the court was told.
Her son was also found with fatal chest and neck injuries which would have rendered him unconscious in seconds and dead within minutes after he lost half the blood in his body.
The pair were declared dead at the scene after paramedics and police battled in vain to save them.
Ricotta, who wore a grey pinstripe suite with a striped tie as he sat in the dock alongside an Italian interpreter, has denied two counts of murder and one count of assault causing actual bodily harm.
Mr Spence said the couple had both been previously married and had begun sleeping in separate bedrooms as their relationship deteriorated.
He said that the attack unfolded less than three minutes after CCTV at the couple’s house showed Mrs Nugara arriving home after visiting her daughter.
Mr Spence said Ricotta began arguing almost immediately with her after she walked through the door.
The court heard how Ricotta went upstairs to change out of his bloodstained clothing before going outside to meet police.
As he did so, the youth asked him why he had killed Mrs Nugara and her son, and he replied: ‘They wanted to kill me.’
The alleged murders took place at the family home where Mrs Nugara lived with her adult son and husband
Ricotta told the police after the incident that it was Mr Morreale who had the knife and not him
The youth added in a police interview: ‘He seemed angry, but also happy that he had got his revenge.’
The court heard how Mrs Nugara had been ‘very close’ to her family, and had looked after the paperwork of a house letting business which she ran with her husband, who owned a number of rented properties.
The teenager added that Mr Morreale had ‘bad habits’ with alcohol and cannabis, but described him as ‘silly when drunk, but not aggressive’.
He admitted that Mr Morreale had ‘a more difficult relationship’ with his stepfather, and had been abused by him in the past. He added that a previous incident had left Giuseppe with bruising and police being called.
He also said that Ricotta and his wife argued regularly, and had a ‘big argument’ in April last year which also led to police being called to the house.
Tensions allegedly increased in the couple’s marriage in 2022 when Ricotta’s grown-up daughter came to live in the house with ‘a large number of dogs’, which Mrs Nugara objected to.
He added that Ricotta had been aware that his wife wanted a divorce and had asked family members to persuade her to stay.
The second woman in the house said Giuseppe had worked for a time with Ricotta, but ‘did not get on well with him’. During one argument, Ricotta had threatened to cut his stepson’s throat with a chainsaw, she said.
The woman said she believed that Mrs Nugara had first discussed getting a divorce with a solicitor in 2018.
Mr Spence said Mrs Nugara confided regularly with a long-standing friend Sylvia James, telling her of the state of her marriage.
Police at the house in Ugley, Essex, where Mr Morreale and his mother Mrs Nugara were found dead
The house in Ugley, Essex, where Mr Morreale and his mother Mrs Nugara were found dead
In a WhatsApp message sent the day before her death, she told her that her husband had told her she would have to stay with him ‘or things are going to get messy’ and she would have ‘to deal with the consequences’.
Prior to that, Mrs Nugara told her friend that her husband had threatened to kill her and bury her in the garden, saying: ‘Dead or alive, you are not leaving this marriage’.
Mr Spence said Mrs Nugara had kept a diary about her husband’s behaviour, and there was evidence that he had found it and photographed pages on his phone.
Her older daughter said her stepfather was often working in their large garden where he kept several animals. She recalled him once saying of his animals: ‘If you slit their throats, they will die instantly’.
Giuseppe also confided with friends that his mother wanted to leave her ‘abusive’ marriage, and was ‘definitely leaving’.
Ricotta tried to blame Mr Morreale when he was being signed in to Chelmsford police station after his arrest, said Mr Spence.
He said: ‘It was the son who did it, not me. He came down with the knife, not me. I had an argument with my wife. He heard the noise and came down with the knife.’
Mr Spence said his claim was ‘in stark contrast to others in the house’ who stated that Mr Morreale had only got involved to stop the knife attack on his mother.
In a later police interview, Ricotta gave a prepared statement saying that he had been arguing with his wife when she called for her son who ‘lunged at him with a knife’ while he shielded himself behind Mrs Nugara. He claimed that he injured his hand while trying to grab the knife.
In a later statement he denied that anyone else had been in the living room, and denied assaulting the youth.
He admitted discussing divorce with his wife, and claimed that they had both informed solicitors, but said she kept changing her mind and their marriage was ‘in limbo’.
Mr Spence told jurors: ‘We say these killings were unlawful and not in self-defence. When you look at the pattern of injuries, the intention must have been to kill or at the very least cause serious harm.
‘We say the speed in which he sat upon Maria after her return suggests he had already armed himself with a knife and this was pre-planned.’
The trial continues.
