Italian Court Sentences US Citizen Francis Charles Kaufmann to Life for Double Murder
An Italian court has found US citizen Francis Charles Kaufmann guilty of murdering his partner and their 11-month-old daughter, and sentenced him to life in prison, Deadline reported on November 5, 2026.
The verdict was delivered by eight judges at the Corte d'Assise, the court in Rome that hears the most serious criminal cases. The sentence also includes three years of solitary confinement, meaning time held alone and apart from other prisoners. This was a first-instance verdict, the first ruling in the case.
The victims were Anastasia Trofimova, a 28-year-old Russian national, and her daughter Andromeda. Their bodies were found in Villa Pamphili, a large public park in western Rome, on June 7, 2025. ANSA reported that Andromeda died of strangulation on the evening of June 6, a few hours before the bodies were discovered.
Investigators say Kaufmann was travelling under a false identity, posing as Rexal Ford, a film producer and director. He was arrested on June 13, 2025, on the Greek island of Skiathos on suspicion of being the killer. The arrest involved cooperation between Italian and Greek police and the FBI, the United States federal law enforcement agency. He was later extradited, or formally handed over, from Greece back to Italy.
The case has a film-industry thread. In 2020, Kaufmann secured a tax credit of €863,595 from the Italian Ministry of Culture for a feature called Stelle della Notte. Italy offers such credits, a form of public money tied to film production, to help producers make films there. That movie was never made.
Kaufmann's lawyer, Paolo Foti, asked the court to acquit him of both murder charges. He argued that there was not enough hard evidence to convict. During the trial, Kaufmann maintained his innocence and was held in a jail in Rome.
On October 26, 2026, the prosecutor Antonio Verdi of the Rome public prosecutor's office, the Procura di Roma, asked for a life sentence. Reuters reported that request, which the court has now granted in its sentence.
For the families and friends of the two victims, the ruling closes the first stage of a case that began with a discovery in a city park more than a year ago. Further appeals are possible under Italian law, and the verdict is not the final word on the case.
