Marsascala attempted murder victim says he is unsure who pulled the trigger

Jurors in the trial of a man charged with attempted murder by firing a gun at another man heard the victim testify that he was not sure who actually fired the shots at him.

Christian Muscat took the witness stand in the trial against Carl Caruana, 29, who has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder and to the illegal possession of a firearm in Marsascala on November 20, 2019.

As soon as Muscat took the witness stand, Madame Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera reminded him that he was legally obliged to tell the whole truth.

During his testimony, he deviated from parts of the version of events he had given to the police in 2019. 

He insisted that what he told jurors was the truth because, back then, he was on drugs and had arguments with about 17 people and “I thought I saw and heard things that were not true”.

Muscat recounted how, on that morning, he and Caruana had been arguing through Facebook Messenger.

The argument started over a woman, but he could not remember any more details about who she was. 

“I started threatening him. I don’t remember exactly what I said. We kept messaging one another, and the argument heated up more and more. I suggested we meet.”

He drove to an area in Marsascala looking for Caruana and, as he drove, he crossed paths with Caruana, who was driving in the opposite direction.

There was a man in the passenger seat  - a certain Jurgen Fenech.

He pulled the handbrake, turned the car around and shouted at Caruana to stop, then got out of the car.

He had “a torch-taser” with him, which he took along in case he needed to defend himself. 

At this point, the prosecution said that, in 2019, he had said he had a torch and never mentioned the taser part.

Muscat went on to say that he then walked up to the passenger’s window. 

He said he had a knife by his side -  a detail which the prosecution noted had not emerged before either.

The passenger put up the window, and Caruana drove off, turned the car around and drove towards him. Muscat picked up a stone to defend himself.

In his testimony, he said he did not know whether there was a revolver, whether it was in Caruana’s hand, or who fired the shots.

However, nudged by the judge, he remembered that Caruana had a revolver pointed up in the air, with his arm out of the tinted window as he drove past.

Muscat said he then threw the stone and ran after the car.  

“I heard noises from the car, but I’m not sure if they came from the driver’s side or the passenger’s side,” he said, as the prosecution reminded him that in his previous testimony, he had said he had seen Caruana put down the window and point a small revolver at him.

He said that, at the time, he had assumed the shots were fired by Caruana since they had just had an argument.

He said he then went to Fenech’s house and burst the tyres of his car with the knife he had. Fenech’s brother and father came out and started arguing and fighting until the police arrived.

He said that, back then, he had a drug problem and had fights with about 17 people.

“At the time I thought I saw or heard many things that were not true,” he said, adding that he had a condition related to anxiety: “if a basooka fell next to me I would not see it”.

“[Caruana and Muscat] never had other issues since the incident…. It could be that my son ends up at catechism with his son one day… You never know… You have to think about these things in life. Seven years ago, things were very different,” he said.

Attorney General lawyers Kaylie Bonett and Dejan Darmanin are prosecuting, alongside Police Inspector Eman Hayman.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi, Ishmael Psaila and Amadeus Cachia are representing the accused.