Adam "Mada" Kabobo, the Ghanaian who killed three passers-by in Milan with a pickaxe on May 11, 2013, has been sentenced to twenty years in prison and a period of "not less than three years' in a mental facility as a security measure.

The ruling was expedited by the GUP of Milan, Manuela Squires, who recognized the accused as mentally unstable. The court has, therefore, substantially upheld the request by the prosecution for a 20-year-jail-term including an additional 6 years in a mental facility due to his mental state.

The court admitted the prosecutor’s argument and found the Ghanaian capable of consent at the time of the offense, despite his history of paranoia and schizophrenia. The defence had earlier argued for an acquittal instead, with the plea of mental illness.

The families of the victims who were civil plaintiffs in the trial, have been approved sums ranging from EUR 100,000 and above, as compensation. The Ghanaian, however, is penniless.

On Saturday, May 11, 2013, Adam Kabobo, 31 years old, displaced in Italy, with a history of resistance, robbery, theft and drugs, photo-reported in 2011 in Apulia and on the loose, wandered away in Mount Grivola at dawn, armed with a crowbar, in a state of agitation.

With no reason, he attacked a 24-year-old who was returning from work in a supermarket: the boy went to a hospital in Niguarda for treatment and was discharged. After about twenty minutes, the Ghanaian attacked a second through the Passerini, he was a 50-year-old labourer whom he hit on the head but had no serious injuries after he went to the hospital.

No one had called the police at that moment until Kabobo picked up a pickaxe at a nearby construction site and at 6.30am, attacked Ermanno Masini, 64-year-old pensioner. He struck him on the head and abdomen around the Adriatico: the wounds were fatal.

In the Square of Belloveso, the Ghanaian saw Carole Alexander, 40 years old, sitting in front of a bar, and hit him several times in the head, killing him instantly. Finally, in Monte Rotondo, he attacked the 21-year-old Daniel Carella, who he struck from behind when his victim was off-loading newspapers with his father: He died at the Niguarda Hospital with numerous head injuries.

Relatives of the victims

"In any other country, for example in the United States, Kabobo would have been condemned to a death penalty or life imprisonment. If you think that twenty years in prison in addition to six years for murder is ok, I say that in a normal country it’s not justifiable, “says embittered Andrea Masini, the son of Ermanno.

"I do not blame the judge who was obliged to pronounce this judgment, having to admit the case of insanity and ruling in that regard, but I blame the Italian State which entertains illegal immigrants and does not monitor them," said Masini.

In relation to compensation that the court has granted him, Masini stressed that "my father cannot be compensated, the state should compensate me automatically, and I should not be asking Kabobo who is poor."

Masini noted the decision of the other plaintiffs to sue the Interior Ministry to obtain compensation for the damages suffered, and then said: "The state has defaulted on compensations. In a normal country, it should be automatic. I will join in the suit if Kabobo will no longer be out of jail. What has happened is the fault of the state, because my father’s death caused by an illegal immigrant is illogical."

"You only hear and not understand"

"He told me that he feels lonely and does not understand why he is alone in his cell," Nancy Asare, a Ghanaian interpreter who had the opportunity to speak with Adam Kabobo at the hearing told reporters.

"He has a very low literacy level - he said - and did 4-5 years of elementary school, I talked with him a bit in a Ghanaian dialect and English."

The lawyer, Colasuonno Francesca, who with her colleague Benedict Ciccarone served as defence for the Ghanaian in the trial, said: "We explained to Kabobo what happened. We believe that prison is not the place to treat him and we hope that he is transferred. Accept the reasons and then we will go on appeal. "

The defence have pointed out to reporters that their concern in the Supreme Court (hearing set for May 30) would be their plea, rejected in the past by the investigating magistrate and the Review which is to request for the transfer of the Ghanaian from San Vittore prison to a prison psychiatric hospital where the man could be better cared for and undergo "rehabilitation."