David Zerafa to face trial for Michael Grech murder

Nine years after Dr Michael Grech was murdered in Marsalforn, David Zerafa, 39 from Nadur, will today face a trial by jury accused with the murder of the Gozitan lawyer.

On 25 May, 2004, the 46-year-old lawyer was ambushed, assaulted and dragged bleeding to a garage underneath his home by a hooded man who had been lying in wait outside his flat. Dr Grech, a father of two, was later killed by a blow to the back of the head.

Grech, who was regarded as one of Gozo's top lawyers, was known by friends as a family man who dedicated his life to his office, taking keen interest in civil cases. On the fateful night, he is believed to have returned home at around 10pm. After parking his vehicle in a basement garage, he walked to his residence. Investigators assumed that as Dr Grech was about to access his apartment on the third floor, his assailant came down from the steps leading to the top floor and shot him in the neck. It is suspected that the gun jammed, otherwise Dr Grech may have been dispatched on the spot.

Bleeding and chased by the attacker, Dr Grech rushed down the stairs and was about to exit onto the main road when he was either caught by the attacker or else fainted from loss of blood. The assailant then dragged his victim face down inside a garage which was still under construction. The lawyer was killed when the back of his head was smashed by a heavy object.

On 16 July 2005, the Gozo Court began hearing the compilation of evidence against David Zerafa. The accused was at the time serving a prison term over a fight during the previous year. Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera granted bail against a Lm5,000 deposit and a personal guarantee of Lm10,000. However, the accused was returned to CCF to finish the previous sentence.

Superintendant Antonello Grech, who at the time was a police inspector in Gozo, had met the lawyer on the night of 25 May. Dr Grech told him that he was returning home from work and that the following day was promising to be a very busy one. Twenty minutes after they departed, the officer was informed by the Rabat police about a murder in Marsalforn. In a garage, he found the lawyer's lifeless body lying face down and surrounded by his immediate family members, which included his wife.

At the time, a file was on Superintendant Grech's desk, in which the victim had asked the police to inform Zerafa not to continue bothering the accused's former wife since Dr Grech was her legal representative.

Two recordings of telephone calls to emergency number 199, asking the police for help on the night of the murder, were presented in court. The voices were of Deborah Grech, the victim's daughter, and Carmel Grech, her maternal grandfather.

Taking the witness stand, the victim's wife said she would never forget the assailant's eyes. "Every time I close my eyes, I see them again in front of me," she had told the court.

Maria Grech and her children were in the kitchen waiting for Dr Grech's return. She heard a commotion outside the apartment, followed by a gunshot and a cry of pain, but did not recognise the victim's voice. The sight of a person carrying a gun welcomed her when she opened the door, but the person was hooded and she could only see his eyes.

In under two minutes, the witness had picked out the eyes of the accused from a collage of nine hooded faces the police had shown her. The same images where shown to the police officer but he failed to recognise the accused, even if he in fact knew him.

The compilation of evidence was not short on drama. During the witnessing of the victim's wife, Zerafa fainted and had to be taken to hospital, resulting in the proceedings having to be put off. The accused was arraigned from St Michael's Ward in St Luke's Hospital. In the first sitting, he told the Gozo Court that his job was hiring out sun beds, and that he was sick. The Court turned down a request for a psychiatric assessment with the prosecution claiming that the accused "looked sane enough when he was replying to questions".

In another sitting, the two eyewitnesses who had seen two hooded persons at the scene of the crime chose to testify by video-conferencing, which was not available at the Gozo Court.

Today's trial by jury is expected to start at 9am, when nine jurors will be appointed from the jury pool.