Carl Caruana handed prison term over Marsascala shooting case
Weapon used in 2019 incident has never been found, court told
Carl Caruana has been sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm in the 2019 shooting in Marsascala.
Caruana, 29, was acquitted of attempted murder on Thursday over an incident in which he was accused of firing five shots at Christian Muscat, whom he had known since childhood.
The incident happened in Triq in-Nadur, on November 29, 2019.
With eight votes to one, the jury found Caruana not guilty of attempted murder. However, the jury unanimously found him guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm, illegal possession and use of a firearm, and other offences.
On Friday, Mr Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera sentenced Caruana to four years in prison.
Caruana had faced charges of attempted murder, illegal possession and use of a firearm, and other offences. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The case dates back to the day of the shooting, when Caruana and Muscat argued on Facebook Messenger and agreed to meet in Triq il-Qaliet, Marsascala, at about 10.30am.
They arrived at the location in separate cars. Caruana then indicated that Muscat should approach him.
Muscat got out of his car and walked towards the passenger side of Caruana’s vehicle, where another man was seated.
He looked inside the car and told Caruana to calm down so that the situation would not escalate.
Caruana then reversed his car. Thinking he might be driven into, Muscat ran towards the front porch of a nearby home and grabbed a stone.
At that point, Caruana allegedly pointed a gun out of the window and fired five shots at Muscat with the intent to hit him. Muscat ducked and was not injured.
Caruana then drove away from the scene. He later phoned the Żabbar police station and identified himself as the man involved in the incident with Muscat.
During his testimony, Muscat said the argument started over a woman. He told jurors that he was not sure who actually fired the gun at him since there was another person in the car with Caruana at the time.
The defence built their case around this element of doubt, that it was not proven who actually fired the gun.
The judge noted that the weapon has never been found.
The prosecution was led by lawyers Kaylie Bonett, Luigi Gulia and Dejan Darmanin on behalf of the Attorney General’s Office.
The defence was led by lawyers Arthur Azzopardi, Ishmael Psaila and Amadeus Cachia.