58-year-old Anna Maria Tolomello, of Hilltown Township.
The owner of a Chalfont pizza shop has been accused of killing her common law husband and business partner, then attempting to cover up the incident by burying the body in their backyard.
Anna Maria Tolomello, 58, of Hilltown Township, has been charged with criminal homicide along with additional counts of possessing an instrument of crime, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse, in connection with the shooting death of 65-year-old Giovanni Gallina. Tolomello is being held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility without bail, as the criminal homicide charge is a capital offense.
Gallina and Tolomello are listed as the owners of Pina’s Pizza, located along the 200 block of East Butler Avenue.
Police were contacted on March 29 by Gallina’s son, who resides in Italy, regarding his inability to get in contact with his father. The son told police that he spoke with his father nearly every day, however he had not heard from him since around March 16. When he reached out to Tolomello, she would only say that Gallina left his cell phone at the pizza shop and was away on business, without providing further detail.
The son told police Gallina would not travel for any extended period of time, aside from going to Atlantic City or New York City for a couple of days, and even on those trips, he would maintain near daily contact with his son. Following the call, investigators went to the pizza shop, where employees said they hadn’t seen Gallina "in a while,” according to charging documents.
Later that day, investigators spoke with a cooperating source who claimed that Tolomello had reached out to them on March 19 requesting they dig a hole in the driveway of her home, located along the 1400 block of North Limekiln Pike in Hilltown Township. Tolomello allegedly told the source that she wanted to bury a couple items in the hole, and she would backfill the hole herself with a shovel afterwards before having it covered with blacktop.
With police monitoring the text exchange, the source confirmed with Tolomello that she wanted to have them use an excavator to dig a hole in her yard, and that she intended to backfill it herself. They then went to the home and dug the hole, and Tolomello later met them at the pizza shop and paid $350 in cash, police said. When asked about Gallina’s whereabouts, Tolomello allegedly told the source "He is away.”
Police would execute a search warrant on the home a short time later, encountering Tolomello in her driveway as they arrived. Tolomello allegedly said she knew why police where there, and, unprompted, confessed to shooting Gallina in self defense and added his body was "wrapped up” in a bedroom, according to the complaint.
Investigators found Gallina’s body wrapped in a blanket and blue tarp in the home’s master bedroom, the report states.
In an interview with police, Tolomello reportedly waived her right to remain silent and stated that during the evening of March 16, she had shot Gallina in his left temple as he was strangling her inside their master bedroom, police said. She also confessed to attempting to bury Gallina’s body in the hole, adding that an inquiry she had made on March 18 regarding masking a skunk odor was actually an effort to cover up the odor of Gallina’s decomposing body, according to the criminal complaint.
Tolomello told police she disposed of the bloody mattress in the dumpster at the pizza shop, and the firearm used in the killing was located in a vehicle in her driveway, police said. She also confessed to attempting to clean up the blood inside of the home and wiping down the nightstand from which she retrieved the firearm, the report states.
On March 30, Gallina’s body was removed from the home. Personnel from the Bucks County Coroner’s Office confirmed an injury to the upper left side of Gallina’s head, which was consistent with an entry bullet wound, according to the complaint.
Tolomello’s preliminary hearing has been scheduled for April 18 at 1 p.m. in front of District Judge Regina Armitage. Court documents do not show an attorney listed for the defendant.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
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