Dec 12, 2008 10:37 am US/Pacific
Goth Metal Singer Stabs Guitarist For Poor Playing
ROME (AP) ― The singer in a teen gothic metal band and her brother allegedly stabbed the band's guitarist dozens of times because he did not play well enough, Italian police and a lawyer said Friday.
Police in Genoa, on Italy's northwestern coast, said the 16-year-old victim remained hospitalized but his life was not in danger.
He was attacked Saturday night after the band "Soul Cry" rehearsed in Sestri Ponente, a small town near Genoa. He was stabbed about 50 times, mainly to his back and head, said police official Alessandra Bucci in Genoa.
The 18-year-old singer, Cristina Balzano, and her 16-year-old brother, the band's bass player, were arrested on charges of premeditated attempted murder.
During the rehearsal, band members accused the victim of playing poorly, police said. The attack occurred moments later in a narrow alley.
Balzano was caught by police holding a kitchen knife with a 7-inch blade, her brother next to her and the victim in a pool of blood, Bucci said.
"The motive -- absurd as that is -- is apparently that the way my client played his instrument did not satisfy the two," said Giuseppe Maria Muscolo, a lawyer for the victim.
Police said they had seized a note that the 16-year-old suspect wrote to the victim days before the attack, which read: "I'm preparing a nice little funeral for you."
The victim has accused both suspects of stabbing him, police and the lawyer said.
Balzano initially said she was trying to stop the victim from committing suicide, Bucci said. She later refused to answer investigators' questions. Her brother has accused her of being the only attacker.
Lawyers for the suspects could not immediately be reached for comment. But the Genoa-based paper Il Secolo XIX quoted lawyers for Balzano as saying she doesn't remember anything and that they had asked for a psychological evaluation.
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