Twist in the murder of the 'Celestial Houses', Gennaro Marino 'McKay' acquitted, former member of the Di Lauro clan board and absolute master of what was considered the 'crown jewel' of the clan, namely the square of the Celestial Houses. The trial is that for the murder of Massimo Mele which took place on 7 October 2003 in Secondigliano. Marino was indicated by the public prosecutor as the instigator of the crime (the material perpetrator Vincenzo Vitale will later be killed in an ambush) and had asked for the penalty of thirty years in prison for him.

Investigation literally shattered thanks to the arguments of Marino's defenders who highlighted how the declarations of the repentant were very contradictory and related to mere conjecture. The repentants attributed the crime to Mele's excessive desire for autonomy, which reached the point of questioning the leadership of the brothers Gennaro and Gaetano Marino.

The defense attributed the crime to Vitale's desire for revenge against Mele for the advances made by the latter to Vitale's wife. That evening Vitale would have acted on his own, finding Mele in the street and killing him. Arguments that convinced the judges who thus acquitted ' McKay ' of all charges .