Woman accused of murder; hiding body in bedroom

Anna Maria Tolomello claims she shot Giovanni Gallina in self defense

HILLTOWN >> A 48-year-old Hilltown woman was charged March 30 with homicide and abuse of a corpse after investigators said she shot and killed her longtime partner, kept the body wrapped up in a bedroom for almost two weeks and had a hole dug at the couple’s home to bury the man.

Following a preliminary arraignment before Magisterial District Judge Regina Armitage, New Britain, Anna Maria Tolomello was taken to Bucks County Correctional Facility with bail denied, court information shows.

Tolomello is accused of killing 65-year-old Giovanni Gallina at the couple’s home on Limekiln Pike in the Chalfont section of Hilltown, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said on crimewatchpa.com. The pair were the owners of Pina’s Pizza in New Britain, the D.A.’s Office said.

On the “Remembering Giovanni Gallina” GoFundMe page, Gallina was remembered as a friend of many, father of three and grandfather of two.

“‘The Boss’ was a good man that was tough on the outside but loving on the inside. He helped many people in need, including myself, and I will forever be grateful. I can write pages about this man’s impact on so many people. He was a funny, kind-hearted and good person all around,” Pris Castrejon, who started the page, wrote.

The investigation began after Gallina’s son, who lives in Italy, reported on March 29 that he spoke almost every day by phone with his father, but had not been able to reach him since March 16 or 17 and that Tolomello, Gallina’s common law wife, would only say that Gallina was away on business, according to information in the criminal complaint.

Tolomello, who had not reported that Gallina was missing, had hired someone to dig a hole in the driveway of their home that was seven feet long, three feet wide and three feet deep, investigators said. She said she would fill the hole herself and have it covered with blacktop, investigators said.

She had also asked someone else for advice on removing the odor of a skunk, investigators said.

When the Hilltown Township Police and Bucks County District Attorney’s Office went to the home with a search warrant on March

29, Tolomello said she knew why they were there and that she had shot Tolomello in self-defense, the criminal complaint says. She later told officers she shot Gallina in his left temple while he was strangling her the evening of March 16, investigators said.

She said he was “wrapped up” in a bedroom, police said.

On March 30, a large bundle wrapped in a blue tarp and comforter and containing the body of an adult male wrapped in bed clothes which were saturated in blood and the head covered with a black plastic garbage bag was removed from the home, investigators said.

Tolomello initially said the hole she had hired the person to dig was to bury a dog, but later said it was for Gallina’s body, investigators said. She also said the reason she had asked about ways of masking skunk odor was to cover the odor of Gallina’s decomposing body, investigators said.

Tolomello said she had taken the bloody mattress Gallina was lying on to the pizza business where she put the mattress in the dumpster, investigators said. She said she wiped down the gun and the nightstand from which she took it to remove fingerprints, along with disposing of the spent shell casing and remaining unspent casings, investigators said. The Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver was in a car in the home’s driveway, investigators said.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Louis Bell and Sgt. Timothy Murphy of the Hilltown Township Police Department and Detective Eric Landamia of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, the D.A.’s Office said. Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Rees and Assistant District Attorney Jose Perez are the prosecuting attorneys, the D.A.’s Office said. Court information did not list an attorney for Tolomello as of March 30.