Luciano Frattolin, a failed coffee company CEO who murdered his young daughter during a trip to New York so he could avoid paying child support, has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Frattolin, 46, received the sentence Wednesday in Essex County Supreme Court in Elizabethtown, New York, for the July 2025 murder of his nine-year-old daughter, Melina.
He offered no explanation or apology during the sentencing hearing. When asked whether he wanted to address the court, Frattolin replied with just three words: “No thank you.”
Prosecutors said Frattolin drowned Melina in a muddy swamp in Ticonderoga, New York, as they returned from a trip to New York City. He then claimed that masked men had abducted her in a van.
Frattolin, who had been CEO of the failed coffee company Gambella, was caught repeatedly lying to investigators as his account began to unravel.
Prosecutors said he killed Melina to take revenge on her mother and escape his child-support obligations. Frattolin, however, has never admitted to the killing.
Judge Tatiana Coffinger sharply rebuked Frattolin during sentencing, telling him: “I hope at some point in your life you will realize what you have done.”
“You live in a world of self-made delusion of wealth and image when the greatest accomplishment in your life could’ve been as a great father,” Coffinger said.
Luciano Frattolin, 46, a failed coffee CEO who murdered his young daughter during a New York trip, has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison
Prosecutors said Frattolin killed his nine-year-old daughter Melina last year to retaliate against his ex-wife and avoid paying child support
Frattolin was convicted of second-degree murder in August. Coffinger said he would also face deportation after completing his sentence if he is ever granted parole.
An Italian and Ethiopian citizen who was living in Canada when the murder occurred, Frattolin stood in a rumpled gray suit and nervously shuffled as the sentence was announced, according to courtroom reporters.
Although prosecutors identified money and revenge against Melina’s mother, his ex-wife Kali Galanis, as possible motives, Judge Coffinger said she still struggled to understand his actions.
“Everyone who has heard of this story, everyone wants to know why,” the judge said.
“My own daughter asked me repeatedly why this happened,” she added. “Even if we had an answer, that wouldn’t bring Melina back.”
Coffinger also condemned Frattolin’s kidnapping hoax, describing it as “like a Hollywood script” that triggered a large and unnecessary search for the girl.
“The search area kept expanding and our entire area, the entire region held their collective breaths in the hopes that Melina would be found safe,” the judge said.
When Melina was reported missing by her father on July 19, 2025, he claimed that two men in a white van had kidnapped her as they traveled back from New York
Frattolin maintained his innocence and has never offered an explanation or apology for the tragedy
The girl’s remains were found on July 19, 2025, concealed beneath a log in a remote pond in the town of Ticonderoga.
At Frattolin’s trial, medical examiners testified that they found her covered ‘in a large amount of mud’ in a knee-deep swamp, and said evidence showed she was drowned.
‘The lungs were just full of black material, basically mud and plant debris,’ medical examiner Dr Michael Sikirica said in the trial.
‘It was obvious quickly that her lungs were hyper expanded,’ Sikirica testified, adding that her remains appeared to be weighted down by a stone in the water.
Prosecutors also presented cell phone data that placed Frattolin near the lake where his daughter’s body was found, which he had told investigators he had not been near to.
New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Investigator Daniel Mauro testified that he interrogated Luciano for 13 hours after he reported his daughter was missing.
Mauro said the coffee CEO changed his story several times, including being caught in a lie about changing his clothes. At first he said he did not change, before admitting he changed his shirt because he ‘was sweaty.’
The investigator said inconsistencies in the story alerted cops, who believed Frattolin changed his clothes because he had been wading in the marsh.
Frattolin’s wet clothes were later found in a trash bag discarded along Interstate 87, the route where he had been driving Melina back to her mother in Montreal.
Frattolin was the CEO of coffee company Gambella
Melina’s mother said she sent her this picture just hours before she was allegedly murdered
After Frattolin was sentenced this week, District Attorney Michael Langey read a statement on behalf of Melina’s family.
‘We continue to suffer deeply since the day Melina was brutally murdered. Nothing can bring Melina back, but we are relieved that this chapter is over,’ he said.
‘We are sincerely grateful to everyone who worked on the case, for your dedication and persistence. Your efforts helped bring a measure of justice for our family.’
Frattolin’s attorney Brian Pilatzke maintained his client’s innocence, and said that ‘what happened in that body of water in Ticonderoga is a mystery.’
‘Nobody knows what happened there,’ he said.