The wife of murdered Gozitan lawyer Michael Grech this afternoon recounted to the court how she had found her husband covered in blood on the floor by following a blood trail.

Testifying this evening in the trial by jury of David Zerafa, 39, of Nadur, who is pleading not guilty to murdering Dr Grech, 46, Maria Grech said that before 10pm she heard a gunshot in the common area, which sounded like it had come from a level higher than their flat.

“I heard commotion and shouts of ajma, ajma… I heard like a scuffle going on,” she said.

Mrs Grech said she initially thought that her 17-year-old neighbour whose parents were abroad had done something so she peered out of the door and shouted "Steve what happened?”

He did not answer but she saw a man come down the stairs. Although he was hooded, his eyes were exposed and he looked at her. He was wearing a boiler suit and surgical gloves.

“His eyes had impressed me. He had a gun and was pointing it at me but it was a small gun… He was looking directly in my eyes. His were brown and almond shaped… I will never forget them… I will remember them for the rest of my life. I had thought to myself that he was dressed as if he was going to the Nadur carnival.”

Ms Grech said that her maternal instinct kicked in and tired to close the door but could not and had to throw her body weight to the door. She closed the safety chain and sat down on the floor with her back to the door until she thought it was safe to leave.

She said that she tried to phone her husband but he did not answer. She told her children that she was going out to warn him that something had happened. They tried to stop her but she opened the door and went out.

“As I went outside I saw my husband’s briefcase on the front step,” she said.

As she was shown the black brief case in court, she broke down crying before she gathered herself and continued.

She said she told her children that their father had arrived home and something had happened to him. The lights of the common parts were on so she looked for him as she shouted to her children to call the police. She said that by that point she was shaking.

She said she was going up and down the stairs because she did not know what to do. She went to check if he was stuck in the lift and saw a hand blood stain on the wall and droplets on the floor.

“I went to the garage and found the car. I pushed the lift button but it did not come down. I followed the blood stains and saw blood on the pavement and outside... I saw drag marks on the floor... My heart was thumping at that point and I found him on the floor…

“He was covered in blood. I knelt down next to him and felt his back and he was still warm. I was calling out to him and he looked like that he was dead. I saw a car coming and thought that they were coming to get me too. The car was coming from Rabat. There was a wall and I hid behind it. The car passed by. I went to tell my children that I found him and saw my daughter and said I found daddy and went back to Michael.

“My son was telling me to go back upstairs because I was going to feel sick. But I felt that my place was next to my husband... I told them I need your support.”

Ms Grech said the police arrived shortly afterwards and put her in a car. She said she could remember seeing lemons on the floor and saying that he (her husband) brought them lemons home because he loved farming.

She said that when she had been shown pictures to make an identification, she immediately chose number two because he had the same eyes she had seen.

The murder, Ms Grech said, had affected her family very badly. It had affected them financially and her children never saw their father again.

“I still cannot recuperate… I have started working, the other weekend I had exams... I have to cope with everything by myself…Thank God my parents took care of me and we lived with them for five years.”

She said she never returned to the flat and had even bought new things so as not to have to return.

Dr Grech had been shot in the neck and his cranium was smashed in with a baseball bat outside his garage in Marsalforn in May 2004.

Earlier, the court heard two prisoners claim that the accused had told them about committing the murder.

The testimony of Stephen Spiteri, who is now deceased, was read out.

Mr Spiteri had said that he knew the accused at St Luke’s Hospital’s St Michaels Ward, where prisoners were kept.

Mr Zerafa was chatting with him about personal matters when he started crying and confessed to him about killing the lawyer. He told him he had killed him because he had slept with his wife.

Mr Zerafa had told Mr Spiteri that when Gozitans did something they did it well. He said that they had waited for the victim to put away his car and then waited by his front door.

They shot him and bashed him in, then saw a car and hid.

The witness claimed that he was offered money by Mr Zerafa's brother-in-law not to testify.

In a confrontation, he had initially denied having said that but then said it was true but it was a joke.

Mr Spiteri had testified that the accused was not joking when he was talking to him and had also swore against the victim and his grave because he had ruined his life.

Dr Grech had been shot in the neck and his cranium was smashed in with a baseball bat outside his garage in Marsalforn in May 2004.

The court also heard the testimony of Rodney Vella, 33, who said he knew the accused in prison and was also with him at St Michael's Ward.

Mr Vella said Mr Zerafa had told him that Dr Grech had represented his wife and he wanted to kill him. The accused had thought the lawyer was having an affair with his wife.

The accused had told him, Mr Vella said, that he and another man had killed the lawyer. They hit him with a baseball bat and shot him and then hit him again. They only stopped because they thought someone had seen them.

On another occasion, Mr Vella said, the accused told him that after the murder he had gone to change his clothes, which were covered in blood, at Ramla l-Hamra.

On his way, he thought that someone was following him. He swore on the victim's grave and would also dedicate songs to his wife on Smash Radio and ask Hemm xi avukat (Is there a lawyer)?

In cross examination, lawyer Malcolm Mifsud, who is representing Mr Zerafa, told Mr Vella that this was not the first time that he had testified in a murder trial about something the accused would have told him.

Mr Vella said this was true but in the other case there were also 40 other witnesses who had said the same thing.

Asked if he had received any benefit from speaking out about the case, Mr Vella said his bank account balance at the moment was nil and if anything was deposited in the next few days he would only get to know about it next week.

BLOW TO HEAD FRACTURED VICTIM'S SKULL

Forensic expert Mario Scerri told the court this afternoon that the victim died from a blow to his head which caused massive fractures to his skull.

The victim suffered a deep gash on the back of his skull and had a wound on the side of his neck.

Besides a bullet lodged in his left lung, the autopsy x-rays had also shown skull fractures that were so extensive that the medical expert on the scene of the crime had initially suspected that the victim was killed with a shotgun.

Dr Scerri said that the bullet had penetrated Dr Grech's neck, embedding itself in his lung leading forensic experts to believe that the shooter had shot the victim from a higher level.

Although the gunshot would have placed the victim in a critical condition unless operated upon, he was still alive when he was dragged to the garages.

Forensic pathologists Ali Safraz and Therese Camilleri Podesta, who carried out the autopsy, said that there were multiple fractures to the victim's head.

Dr Grech had sprained his left ankle and there was a 2cm squared abrasion in his right cheek. There were a number of small superficial abrasions on his nose and a 1.6cm bullet entry wound on the right side of his neck.

There were other abrasions to his left cheek and another wound on his forehead. There was blood in his nostrils and ears and an 11cm by 16cm wound on the back right side of his head. There were other large bruises on his lower chest.

The two pathologists said there were multiple and convoluted fractures all over his head. There was a depression of the parietal bone and fractures on the base of the skull where the inner part of the ear would be based. The eye sockets were also fractured.

The main cause of death, they said, was the fractured skull. There was blood around his heart but that could have been taken care of. The fractures, they said, were through blunt trauma. The gun shot could have also caused death.