DA Opposes Parole for Murder-for-Hire Killer

San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said today that her office is opposing parole for Laura Troiani, 59, who was convicted in 1984 for hiring five U.S. Marines to kill her husband, 37-year-old Carlo Troiani. At the time, Ms. Troiani was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, but Governor Jerry Brown commuted her sentence in 2018 to 35 years-to-life. In June 2019 at her initial parole hearing, she was denied parole for three years. Her next hearing was subsequently advanced by the Board of Parole Hearings to January 22, 2021. [TWEET THIS]

Troiani masterminded an elaborate conspiracy to murder her husband. She recruited the Marines to help her accomplish the murder by promising them a portion of the life insurance money she would collect once her husband was dead. They initially tried to kill Carlo Troiani with a knife by sneaking up on him and a second time by trying to blow up his car, but both attempts were unsuccessful. Incredibly, neither of the initial murder attempts raised suspicions. The first attempt with a knife was abandoned when the perpetrators saw people as they were heading into his apartment and called the plan off. In the second attempt, the victim found a wire running from his spark plug to his gas tank and thought his troops were playing a prank on him.

Ultimately, Carlo Troiani was ambushed on an empty road in Oceanside after Ms. Troiani lured him there, where two of the hired Marines shot him in the back. Ms. Troiani tried to cover up the murder by calling the police and reporting her husband missing after he had been shot and left to die in a remote area of Oceanside.

“This cold-blooded execution of Carlo Troiani, masterminded by his wife, shook San Diego and the military community,” DA Summer Stephan said. “Family and friends of the murder victim counted on justice in the form of a lifetime prison sentence for this calculated killing. But what they got was more suffering as the sentence was reduced. We’re committed to being a voice for victims at the upcoming hearing and continuing to hold Ms. Troiani responsible for her crimes.”

Troiani’s 2019 parole was denied was based on lack of insight, her minimizing her role in the crime, and a lack of remorse. [TWEET THIS]