The man accused of murdering his former girlfriend in Żebbiegħ told the police he did not shoot to kill but fired his shotgun at her when she tried to run him over, a court heard yesterday.
“Kenneth Gafà said he didn’t want to kill Christine Sammut but was frightened when she tried to run him over, so he produced his gun,” Police Inspector Edmund Cuschieri, prosecuting, told Magistrate Anthony Vella.
Mr Gafà, 38, of Marsa, is pleading not guilty to the murder of Ms Sammut who was shot twice, in the neck and chest, on December 11 at about 5.30 p.m. in Żebbiegħ close to Mġarr.
Mr Cuschieri said that when he arrived on site he found Ms Sammut in the driver’s seat of a white Citroen Berlingo van with two huge wounds on the right side of her chest and neck. Two spent shotgun cartridges were on the ground, one next to the driver’s door and the other close to the bonnet.
“There seemed to be very little damage to the car’s body. The shots were fired at close range through the window, which was shattered,” the witness said.
While still in Mġarr, he was informed that Mr Gafà had turned up at the Ħamrun police station, accompanied by his brother, confessing he had fired two shots at someone.
“He was crying and saying he had ruined his life,” the officer said.
When interrogated, Mr Gafà admitted he had shot Ms Sammut but refused to reveal where he had hidden the shotgun, saying it was in a place where no one could find it. In fact, searches by the police yielded no results, Mr Cuschieri said.
The accused, a bus driver and a jockey, also told the police he feared Ms Sammut’s brothers and had bought the shotgun four months before the murder to defend himself, the officer said.
Preliminary investigations indicated the accused and Ms Sammut, a widow with a 15-year-old daughter, had dated for just over a year and, when the relationship ended, she kicked him out of the apartment they shared. The relationship was a troubled one towards the end and both had filed police reports against one another in the weeks before the murder.
Police Sergeant Stephen Bezzina testified he happened to come across the crime scene within minutes of the murder just a few metres away from his house.
“I had just arrived home from work and was on the way out again for an errand when I heard two loud gunshots,” Mr Bezzina said. Mistaking the sound for firecrackers, Mr Bezzina, who is stationed at the Criminal Investigation Department, was stopped by two neighbours who told him “they just shot a woman”.
Nearby, Mr Bezzina spotted a man with long hair who was waiting in a white van and then went up to Ms Sammut’s Berlingo – whose engine was still running – where she lay on her side with a huge neck wound. “I saw her breathe twice and then she didn’t move anymore.”
The man went up to the Berlingo and called out to the victim: “Chris, Chris. What have they done to you?” Mr Bezzina recounted.
The person, who identified himself as Alfred Xuereb, told the court yesterday he had been waiting for Ms Sammut in his van because she was scheduled to accompany him to an appointment.
“I had met her about five weeks earlier when we got talking about our problems. I told her I wanted to change my counsellor because I wasn’t happy with her and she offered to make an appointment with someone she knew,” Mr Xuereb explained.
Ms Sammut had managed to get hold of his mobile number and rang him up, asking whether he was interested in going to the counsellor she knew. She made an appointment for Mr Xuereb on December 10 but it was cancelled at the last minute and postponed to the following day. Instead, the two went out and ordered a take-away meal. Ms Sammut told him she felt threatened by a former boyfriend who was constantly sending her text messages. “She asked me to drop her off at the police station because she wanted to file another report against him,” Mr Xuereb said.
The next day, Mr Xuereb drove to Żebbiegħ and parked a few metres away from where Ms Sammut was shot, although it was out of his line of sight. “I was tired and dozed off for 10 minutes when I heard two big noises, which I thought were made by exploding tyres.”
The case was put off to March.
Mr Gafà is in preventive custody.
Police Inspectors Daniel Zammit and Chris Pullicino also prosecuted. Lawyers Emanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi appeared parte civile for the family. Lawyers Steve Tonna Lowell, Gianluca Caruana Curran, Gianella Caruana Curran and Joseph Giglio were defence counsel.