Ana Maria Tolomello sentenced to up to 40 years for shooting dead Giovanni Gallina, the owner of the Pina pizzeria.

A Bucks County woman was sentenced Tuesday to 18 to 40 years in prison for killing her longtime boyfriend, a popular Chalfont pizzeria owner, by shooting him in the head and then holding her body for almost two weeks in the room of the house they shared. .

Ana Maria Tolomello pleaded guilty in April to third-degree murder for shooting Giovanni Gallina, the owner of Pina Pizzeria. She also admitted to tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.

Tolomello will be eligible for probation after 18 years but could remain in prison for up to 40 years.

At the sentencing hearing, a court attorney read a statement on behalf of Gallina's children, Marina and Phillip, who remembered their father as a loving family man and lamented that he can't spend more time with his children and grandchildren.

“I appreciate the court, the prosecutor and the police for helping our family get justice, but the feeling of loss and knowing that we will never again be able to spend family time with my father leaves me empty. in the heart,” said the two men. wrote.

Tolomello did not speak in court.

Afterward, Tolomello's lawyer, Antonetta Stancu, said she believed the sentence was fair. Stancu also sought to contextualize the murder, saying Tolomello was a victim of domestic violence during his decades-long relationship with Gallina and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.

Tuesday's sentencing ended a case that began in March 2022 when Tolomello shot Gallina before wrapping her body in sheets and hiding it in their bedroom for 13 days. She threw a bloody mattress into the dumpster behind Pina's house, detectives said.

Tolomello's lawyers initially said she shot Gallina in self-defense while he was choking her in their bed, but that story ultimately fell apart and Assistant District Attorney Christopher Rees provided evidence that Gallina had been shot in the back of the head.

Phillip Gallina contacted police after his father, who he usually spoke with every day, did not respond to his messages for more than two weeks. When he asked Tolomello where her father was, she told them he was “on a business trip,” according to prosecutors.

Rees attributed the success of the prosecution to Phillip Gallina's urgency regarding his father's disappearance.

“If they hadn't acted as quickly as they did…I don't think they would have gotten justice for their father as quickly and effectively as they did,” Rees said after sentencing.

In a move that would ultimately lead to his downfall, Tolomello hired a contractor to dig a hole of very specific dimensions on his property: 7 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. The contractor, whose brother is a police officer, reported the suspicious order, correctly suspecting that it was intended to bury a body.

When police arrived at her home with a search warrant, Tolomello confessed to the shooting.