Barbaric: Man Stabs Wife 47 Times

A husband accused of stabbing his wife 47
times has been released from jail after
spending three years awaiting a trial.

Valentino Ianetti, 63, was released from the
Sussex County jail after the prosecutor’s
office, unable to prove its case, requested
that all criminal charges be dismissed. Mr Ianetti was accused of killing his wife of
37 years Pamela Ianetti, 57, at their
Stanhope home in 2009. On the night his wife died according to an
arrest affidavit Mr Ianetti called police
dispatch to say he had found his wife with
multiple wounds in the bedroom on the
floor. Mr Ianetti cooperated with police and had
blood on his hands, but smelled as though
he had just showered or washed, the
affidavit says. Investigators used a search warrant to
recover a long knife covered with blood,
according to the affidavit. From an autopsy, Dr. Junaid Shaikh, a
former Sussex County medical examiner,
determined the death to be a murder
caused by multiple sharp force wounds to
the thorax and neck. ‘The most significant knife wounds to the
victim punctured her liver in multiple
locations, her lung and her heart,’ Sussex
County prosecutor Gregory Mueller told
said. But, he said, after the defense presented
him with an expert report in May that
challenged the manner of Mrs Ianetti’s
death, he consulted with a forensic
pathologist, a toxicologist and a crime
scene expert, and then filed a motion to dismiss the murder charges. ‘Ethically and morally, you cannot prosecute
a defendant where you believe a reasonable
doubt exists,’ Mr Mueller said. Public defender Steven Insley, said that all
but one of the stab wounds on Pamela
Ianetti’s body were found to have been
superficial – ‘hesitation wounds’ she
inflicted on herself as she worked up the
courage to exact a fatal blow. He also said she had ingested enough
oxycodone that she was likely on the way to
an overdose, he said. ‘She had taken between 20 and 40 pills. If
not for stabbing herself, she might’ve died
just from the drugs she had taken,’ said
Insley, citing what he said was forensic
evidence recently uncovered by his office.
“She probably wasn’t feeling the stab wounds.’ Authorities never revealed why they
believed Mr Ianetti may have killed his wife,
who used to work as a nursing supervisor. The couple did not have any history of
domestic violence, according to police. Mr Insley said while in jail Mr Ianetti lost a
child, a brother and his home in the
borough. He said Mr Ianetti is now living temporariyl
with a friend. ‘He was angry because of the time he spent
in jail, he was crying, but he was happy to
see his friends,’ the lawyer said. The delay in the case coming to trial was
due to a backlog of cases.