Updated 6.37pm

Murder victim Roderick Grech was using a Ford Fiesta rented out to his employer Jordan Azzopardi when he was killed in 2017, a court heard on Friday. 

The information was revealed by witness Vincent Azzopardi, who was testifying in the case against Etienne Bartolo. Bartolo stands accused of murdering Grech over a drug deal that went awry. He has pleaded not guilty to charges. 

The witness, a car dealer, told the court that the car had been rented out to Jordan Azzopardi from March 22, 2017 to April 14, 2017. 

One year later, Jordan Azzopardi was arrested and charged with drug trafficking and fake currency offences. 

No questions answered

Jordan Azzopardi confirmed the rental agreement but declined to answer any further questions, citing concerns that he would incriminate himself. 

He had testified in the case during its compilation of evidence stage, saying at the time that he had lent the rental car once to Grech, who he described as "a friend from Birkirkara". 

“He had asked for it perhaps on the 28/29 and only for a short while. Simple as that. I was doing a small favour. It was not my own, but a hired car,” Azzopardi had explained. 

Azzopardi lent Grech the car around two days before the latter was murdered. He told a court said the only thing he knew about the murder was that “something happened to Roderick. He was injured and died".

“How do you explain some 700 calls/messages between you and Roderick over a fortnight? Were they all about the car?” asked lawyer Mark Vassallo, representing Bartolo.

“Did you try calling Grech on the day of the incident since he had been driving your car?”

“I choose not to comment,” Azzopardi said.  

“Are you nicknamed El Chapo?” Vassallo asked. Azzopardi did not reply. 

Differing versions

Earlier, car dealer Vincent Azzopardi said that he had only spoken to Jordan Azzopardi over the phone and only “met him once.”

But apparently Jordan Azzopardi had given a different version to the police when investigators spoke to him as they investigated the Birkirkara murder. 

Jordan Azzopardi had apparently told investigators that he was on very good terms with the car dealer, paid him in cash and lent him money whenever necessary. 

However the dealer insisted, “I don’t even know him,” adding that his employees would handle the actual delivery of the hired vehicle. 

Vincent Azzopardi explained how on March 19, 2017, a Sunday, he had got a call from one of Jordan’s employees, reporting two punctured tyres on a hired Chevrolet. 

Phone logs later revealed a two-minute call from Roderick Grech, who had told the dealer that “he worked for Jordan.” 

A man who the dealer said he had subsequently identified as Grech then returned the Chevrolet, taking a Ford Fiesta as a replacement. 

Although delivery had been effected on March 19, the rental agreement had read “March 22,” pointed out defence lawyer Mark Vassallo when cross-examining the witness. “Could it be that you gave him the car without any formalities, preparing the papers later when summoned to testify?”

“No, I always prepare the papers,” the witness denied. 

“Did he [Jordan] ever tell you that he could not drive because he had no insurance cover?” the lawyer pressed on.

“No,” came the reply. “Sometimes others would handle customers.”

15 calls in two weeks

After being told by Vincent Azzopardi that he would call Jordan Azzopardi “about money owed”, Dr Vassallo made reference to phone logs which showed that there had been some six calls between the men on March 22, and another call at 10:20am on the day of the murder.

The lawyer counted some 15 calls between the two over a fortnight. 

“If all the calls were about money, then how much money did he [Jordan] owe you?” the lawyer asked, further considering the fact that the two “were not friends.”

Vincent Azzopardi said that he had first been informed that Grech had been stabbed by the police at around 4:00am on that same day. 

“Then why did Jordan Azzopardi call you three times on the morning after the murder?” asked the lawyer.

The witness admitted that he had asked Jordan about the incident. “I had a right to know.”

As for the victim,  Roderick Grech, Vincent Azzopardi said that he had only met him once on that Sunday when the car with the punctured tyres had been returned.

“I work for Jordan,” the young man had told the dealer. “Jordan sent me.”

Vincent Azzopardi said the had only learnt of the victim’s name later, through media reports. 

“Remember you are under oath! You know what that means,” said Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera when he made that claim. 

“Yes I do,” replied the witness.

CID officer testifies

Later in the session, a CID officer who had searched the suspect murderer’s room, recalled the investigations in the days immediately succeeding the murder. 

The officer said that a blood-stained slipper had been retrieved from Bartolo’s room and also identified the clothes allegedly worn by the suspect at the time of his encounter with Grech. 

Court ushers, wearing protective gloves, drew a pair of grey tracksuit pants, a striped grey sweater and a dark green zip-up, from sealed evidence bags and held them up for all to see.

The officer confirmed that they were the clothes he had retrieved from Bartolo’s wardrobe. 
Bartolo had explained that he had put them in the laundry after the incident. 

Bartolo had released two statements to the police, after refusing legal assistance, saying that on that night he had called Grech to fix a meeting close to the Birkirkara local council premises, to buy drugs.

But a quarrel broke out between the two inside Grech’s car after he refused to hand over the drugs when Bartolo confessed he had no money. 

Grech had allegedly punched Bartolo on the shoulder, allegedly prompting Bartolo to react by stabbing Grech with a penknife, which he later disposed of in a garbage bag. 

Bartolo had then allegedly washed his hands on the front porch and gone to bed. 

The trial continues later on Friday. 

Lawyers Kevin Valletta and Maria Francesca Spiteri from the Office of the Attorney General are prosecuting. Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo are defence counsel. Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia are appearing parte civile.