Baħrija murders: 'I killed your rabbits,' accused allegedly confessed to partner
Karmenu Ciantar, 72, stands accused of murdering two men in a Baħrija field
Updated 1pm
A pensioner accused of killing two men in an apparent family feud angrily told the mother of one of them “I killed your rabbits” when she called him hours after the shootings, a court heard on Wednesday.
Karmenu (Carmelo) Ciantar, 72 and known as Id-Durga, allegedly shot dead Dennis Mifsud, 51, and Anthony Agius, 57, in a field in Baħrija, near Rabat, on July 29. He is pleading not guilty.
An inspector told a court that Ciantar had a long-standing dispute with Mifsud and Agius over the use of a parcel of land. The land belonged to his partner, who is also Mifsud's mother and Agius’ mother-in-law.
Agnes Mifsud said Ciantar had left her home early on the morning of July 29 after they argued, with his shotgun in tow. When she called him at around 4pm, he told her “I killed your rabbits”, adding that there was “one in the van and the other in the car.”
He went on to tell her that he had not proceeded to kill her because he wanted to see her “suffer”.
When police reached the murder scene, they found the two dead men - one just outside his vehicle and the other inside, with the keys in the ignition - a farm room on fire and Ciantar’s ID card and driving licence lying on the ground nearby.
Police inspector Kurt Colombo Zahra told the court he spoke to a relative of the two victims, who tried to contact Ciantar on the phone.
“I killed them, you parasite,” he told her.
Arrested at Pama
Colombo Zahra then contacted Ciantar himself, as police scrambled to locate him. Ciantar told him that he had killed the two because they “picked on me over a piece of land” and that he would not be caught alive.
Police located him near the Pama supermarket complex in Mosta and plainclothes officers quickly arrested him, shortly after he told Colombo Zahra over the phone that he intended to shoot himself there.
Inside his car, officers found a shotgun with one round in its chamber.
A dispute over land
When interrogated, he confessed to having killed Agius and Mifsud and said he also set the farmland room on fire.
He complained to officers about the two murder victims, saying they gave him grief over a piece of land he wanted to use to trap birds in. The land belonged to his partner under agricultural lease.
His partner told the court that Ciantar often complained about her children and Agius and that she knew there was a dispute over land. Ciantar wanted another piece of land but Agius and Mifsud used to make money off it by growing vegetables there and did not want him on it, she said.
The two avoided talking about the dispute to her “not to worry me”, she said.
Psychiatric assessment
Her children were not too happy about her relationship with Ciantar, she said, who she said she took pity on. She initially said Ciantar never paid for anything while living together but later acknowledged that he had paid for holidays and a PV panel installation at her home.
Following a request by defence lawyer Franco Debono, the court ordered an independent psychiatrist to examine the accused.
Magistrate Astrid May Grima declared that there was enough prima facie evidence for Ciantar to stand trial.
The case resumes on September 16.
Attorney General lawyers Anthony Vella and Kaylie Bonett prosecuted the case, assisted by police inspectors Kurt Colombo Zahra and Wayne Camilleri.
Ciantar was represented by lawyers Franco Debono, Francesca Zarb, Adreana Zammit and Anthea Bonnici Zammit.
Lawyers Mario and Nicholas Mifsud appeared for the Agius family. Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi, Jacob Magri and David Chetcuti Dimech appeared for Mifsud's family.
As it happened
Prima facie decree
12.36pm The magistrate decrees that there is enough prima facie evidence for Ciantar to stand trial for the murders of Anthony Agius and Dennis Mifsud.
The case will resume on September 16.
Ciantar to undergo psychiatric evaluation
12.32pm The defence has asked the court to appoint a psychiatrist to examine Ciantar, but says it is not pleading insanity. It insists on the psychiatrist being an independent one.
After significant back-and-forth, the court upholds the request. Ciantar will undergo an independent psychiatric assessment.
Replacing her late husband
12.19pm Lawyer Mario Mifsud, who is representing the family of victim Anthony Agius, asks the witness about her late husband.
They were married for 46 years and had a great relationship, she says. There was some discontent among her children when she started dating Ciantar as they saw it as her finding another man to take their late father’s place, she says.
It was her late husband who first allowed Ciantar to use some of his land for bird trapping, she says.
Agnes Mifsud, centre, testified about Ciantar on Wednesday. Photo: Matthew MirabelliArguing in the morning
12.05pm The witness is questioned about the argument she had with Ciantar on the day of the murders.
Ciantar began to mock her granddaughter, Agnes Mifsud recalls, mockingly calling “nanna, nanna”.
She got fed up and told him to take his things and get out of the house. She recalls how Ciantar had once told her that he hoped her granddaughter “got cancer”.
Defence lawyer Debono suggests the two had actually argued over €150. She confirms Ciantar had given her €150 “for the bills” and that he brought them up that morning.
“I told him ‘don’t worry, here you go’ but he said he didn’t want them.”
She says it wasn’t the first time she kicked him out of her house.
Ciantar had sometimes paid for things, she admits. He used to pay for holidays in the past and had also paid for PV panels at her house, she adds.
'We didn't discuss this mess'
11.50am Further questions for the witness, this time from defence lawyer Franco Debono.
She denies that her son and son-in-law dismantled a trapping den that Ciantar had built on the land they argued over. She also denies that she was pressured to kick Ciantar out of her house.
She initially used to go to the land in question but stopped going in the past year, due to some health issues.
Ciantar would complain about there being no water in the field’s water tanks, and she would ask her son-in-law to fill them up for him “so he’ll stop complaining”.
Her son and son-in-law would not complain about Ciantar to her and they did not discuss the land dispute mess [inkwiet] as a family, she says.
'He never paid for anything'
11.34am Agnes Mifsud is cross-examined by defence lawyer Francesca Zarb.
She says Ciantar never paid for anything while he lived with her, and that she used to pity him because he had nowhere to go. Most of their arguments were about the two murder victims, she confirms.
She denies suggestions by Zarb that the two victims, Tony and Dennis, would badmouth Ciantar. She admits, however, that the two objected to Ciantar using land to she owned to trap birds in.
Ciantar told her about that dispute but Tony and Dennis did not tell her much about it “not to worry me”, she says.
There was no written contract granting Ciantar use of her parcel of land, she says, just a verbal agreement.
She denies taking Ciantar’s money and says she would run errands and he would then accuse her of gambling the money away.
"Any money he gave me, I paid him back... in 10 years he didn't pay for anything," she says.
'I killed your rabbits'
11.19am Agnes Mifsud recalls the day of the murders.
They woke up at around 6am. She says Ciantar started complaining about her granddaughter, who he did not like.
She told him off and told him to get out of the house. She saw him fetch his shotgun from the garage and walk out of the house.
At around 12.30pm, she called Ciantar’s brother, Michael, to tell him that his brother was out with his gun. But he was not in. When Michael returned, he told her that he was taking his children to the beach.
The witness says she started growing a bit concerned at around 4pm. She called Ciantar up five or six times. She eventually got through.
“I killed your rabbits,” he told her. She didn’t understand.
“I killed them, didn’t you go see? One in the van and the other in the car,” he told her.
She hung up in shock, then called back and asked him if he went to the police.
“You’re lucky I didn’t come for you, to kill you and see you suffer,” he told her. [Ħa ngħidlek u ma ġejtx għalik biex noqtlok, ħa narak issofri].
Agnes Mifsud says she started screaming and then tried calling her son and son-in-law. They did not answer and she thought “He did it”.
'He wanted more land'
11.10am Around three years into their relationship, Ciantar asked for another piece of land to trap birds.
He wanted a piece of land that her son Dennis and son-in-law Tony tilled and grew vegetables on. They did not want to give up good arable land for Ciantar to use for bird trapping, so she did not do anything about it.
'He complained about everything'
11am Agnes Mifsud takes the witness stand. She will first be questioned by prosecuting lawyer Anthony Vella.
One of the victims, Dennis Mifsud, was her son. The other, Anthony Agius, was son-in-law.
She tells the court that she started seeing the accused, Carmelo Ciantar, after her husband and his mother died. Ciantar and her late husband were friends. Initially, the relationship was good. But over time Ciantar started to “rebel” and started wanting things, she says.
She says she allowed him two pieces of land – one with a well on it - to use for his trapping hobby. The land is government-owned but she has an agricultural lease (qbiela) on it. She also gave some land to her son, Dennis Mifsud, and son-in-law Anthony Agius.
Ciantar complained “about everything”, she says.
The court asks her how long the arguments had been going on.
“No clue, love” [Jien naf, qalbi] the witness replies. The court instructs the witness to address it as “Your Honour”.
“Ok, love,” she replies.
10-minute break
10.35am The court calls a 10-minute recess. We expect Agnes Mifsud, the partner of the accused and mother of one of the murder victims, to testify when we return.
About the land dispute
10.29am The inspector sheds more light on what Ciantar said about the arguments with his partner, Agnes, and the two murder victims.
Agnes was always blaming him for things and was not at all frugal, he claimed. Ciantar told the inspector “If she needed a tin of kunserva, she would buy four”.
His arguments with the two murder victims centred on the use of a piece of land which Agnes had apparently inherited the lease on when he husband died, the inspector says.
Agnes had given Ciantar a piece of that land to use to trap birds, but Anthony Agius and Dennis Mifsud were against that. Ciantar claimed they would not even let him fill a bucket of water there.
Leg pain and dentists
10.18am The back-and-forth continues.
“If I have leg pain, I don’t go to a dentist,” the defence lawyer tells the inspector.
The inspector replies: “I would go to a GP, and the GP would refer me to a specialist. Scerri (the doctor who examined Ciantar) did not refer him to anyone.”
The inspector confirms that Ciantar is being held at the prison's forensic unit, saying he made that request and prosecutors did not object.
"I won’t comment on the mental state [of the accused]. He made certain assertions and certain precautions had to be taken," he says.
Defence questions Ciantar's mental state
10.13am Under cross-examination, defence lawyer Franco Debono asks the inspector if he agrees Ciantar was in an agitated mental state, “given that he threatened to take his own life”.
The inspector says he disagrees.
Debono presses on the point, saying a person who threatened suicide should have been seen and certified by a psychiatrist.
The inspector says the accused was seen by a doctor at the Floriana health centre one day before interrogation began, and then every subsequent day leading up to his arraignment.
A confession to police
10.03am Ciantar was interrogated and eventually confessed to having killed both Dennis Mifsud and Anthony Agius. He told police he would apologise to Dennis and Agnes Mifsud (Ciantar’s partner) if he could, but would not apologise to Anthony Agius.
He confirmed that he had set the farm room on fire, because he had tools in there he did not want anyone else to use.
CCTV corroboration
9.59am CCTV footage corroborates Ciantar’s timeline, the inspector tells the court.
A camera near the Kunċizzjoni chapel showed Dennis Mifsud going to the field where he was found dead at 2.30pm that day. Some time later, Anthony Agius can be seen also going there.
Ciantar’s Peugeot left the field at 4.57pm. A Suzuki Swift belonging to a relative arrived at 5.53pm. That relative could then be seen rushing into the chapel some time later, asking for help.
Police got a call saying gunshots had been heard near the chapel. Photo: Matthew MirabelliArrested at Pama
9.54am Police traced Ciantar to a spot in Mellieħa. Then he was traced in Mosta. The inspector got through to him again over the phone.
“I’m at the KFC at Pama (supermarket) and I’m walking to my car. You won’t find me alive,” he told the police inspector. Officers there saw an elderly man walking with a phone to his ear.
Ciantar then told the inspector “I’m going to start shooting here.”
“There are children,” the inspector told him.
“Children forget,” Ciantar replied.
Officers immediately moved in to arrest him. Ciantar told them he did not want a lawyer. Inspector Lydon Zammit read out his rights and recorded the ensuing conversation on his phone, as officers were in plainclothes and did not have bodycams. It was around 8.35pm.
Ciantar said that he shot Dennis Mifsud at 2.45pm “as if it were nothing” (qisu ma kien xejn).
Then “Tony” (Anthony Mifsud) arrived, and he shot him too. Ciantar recalled Tony telling him “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot”. Ciantar said he shot him three times.
When police officers searched Ciantar’s car, a Peugeot, at the Pama parking lot, they found a shotgun with one round in its chamber.
Objection over admissibility
9.44am Defence lawyer Franco Debono praises the police for their work at that moment, but raises questions about the admissibility of the statements his client gave the inspector at that point in time.
The prosecution says such issues can be raised later in the case. “At this stage, we’re gathering evidence related to the case” lawyer Anthony Vella says.
The inspector's testimony can resume.
A spat over a field
9.38am Ciantar had argued with his partner, Agnes Mifsud that morning, the inspector tells the court. He took his shotgun, left the house and did not return.
Mifsud is the mother of one of the murder victims, Dennis Mifsud, and also the grandmother of Kelly Agius.
The inspector says he called the accused and said he wanted to speak to him. The call was recorded.
The accused told the inspector “You’ll find me dead. They picked on me over a piece of land and I had been putting up with them for a long time. If I go to jail they’ll torture me. I’m a sick man. I’m going to go eat and then you’ll find me dead.”
He went on to tell the inspector that his partner, Agnes Mifsud, would gamble away money he gave her at the casino. Her son, Anthony, had been trying to evict him from his field, the inspector recalls Ciantar telling him.
As the inspector spoke to the accused, police worked to localise him and get to him before he could hurt himself or anyone else.
'I killed them, you parasite'
9.32am At a fork in the country road, close to the bodies, police found the accused’s ID card and driving licence. The inspector returned to the chapel and found Kelly Agius, the daughter of one of the victims, Anthony Agius.
She tried to call him and Dennis Mifsud, the other murder victim. They did not answer the phone. Then she tried to call the accused, and when she dialled from her work phone he picked up. “I killed them, you parasite,” he told her in Maltese [Qtiltomlok, ja qurdiena].
Three cars and two bodies
9.26am Inspector Colombo Zahra is the first witness. He recounts events from the moment a call reached police reporting gunshots near the chapel in Kunċizzjoni.
When he reached the crime scene, he found three vehicles – a Suzuki Swift, Hyundai Atos and Toyota van. Next to the Atos lay a man’s body, bleeding from his torso. A snarling chihuahua prevented him from approaching the body, later identified as that of Anthony Agius.
Inside the Toyota, seated in the driver’s seat, was a man who had been shot in the head. The car key was in the ignition. The seat and dashboard were splattered with blood.
A bit further up, a room was on fire.
Welcome
9.05am Good morning, and welcome to this live blog.
The compilation of evidence against Ciantar was originally meant to begin a week ago, but the hearing was short-lived as the magistrate assigned the case, Nadine Sant Lia, recused herself.
The case has since been reassigned to Magistrate Astrid May Grima, who will preside over the court today.
AG lawyers Anthony Vella and Kaylie Bonett are prosecuting, assisted by police inspectors Kurt Colombo Zahra and Wayne Camilleri.
Lawyers Franco Debono, Francesca Zarb, Adreana Zammit and Anthea Bonnici Zammit are appearing for Ciantar. Lawyers Mario and Nicholas Mifsud are appearing for the Agius family. Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi, Jacob Magri and David Chetcuti Dimech are appearing for Mifsud's family.