A Bucks woman who shot her boyfriend and hid his corpse in their house was sentenced to up to 40 years

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

Ana Maria Tolomello pleaded guilty in April to third-degree murder for shooting Giovanni Gallina, the owner of Pina’s 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 as many as 40.

At the sentencing hearing, a court advocate read a statement on behalf of Gallina’s children, Marina and Phillip, who recalled their father as a loving family man and lamented that he would not be able to spend more time with his children and grandchildren.

“I appreciate the court, the district attorney, and the police for helping our family get justice, but the feelings of loss, and knowing we will never again get to spend family time with my father leaves a hole in my heart,” the two wrote.

Tolomello did not speak in court.

Afterward, Tolomello’s attorney, Antonetta Stancu, said she thought the sentence was fair. Stancu also sought to contextualize the killing, saying Tolomello had been a victim of domestic abuse in her decadeslong relationship with Gallina and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a consequence.

Tuesday’s sentencing brought to a close a case that began in March 2022 when Tolomello shot Gallina before wrapping his body in bed linens and hiding it in their bedroom for 13 days. She disposed of a bloody mattress in the dumpster behind Pina’s, according to detectives.

Tolomello’s attorneys initially said that she shot Gallina in self-defense while he was choking her in their bed, but that story eventually fell apart and Deputy District Attorney Christopher Rees provided evidence that Gallina was shot in the back of the head.

Phillip Gallina contacted police after his father, whom he normally spoke to every day, did not respond to his messages for more than two weeks. When he asked Tolomello for his father’s whereabouts, she told them he was “away on business,” prosecutors said.

Rees credited Phillip Gallina’s urgency about his father’s disappearance for the successful prosecution.

“If they had not 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 the sentencing.

In a move that would ultimately be her undoing, Tolomello hired a contractor to dig a hole with very specific dimensions on her 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 it was made to bury a body.

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