David Zerafa“I found your father and I think he is dead,” Maria Grech, the wife of murdered Gozitan lawyer Michael Grech told her daughter Deborah just moments after he was murdered outside their home nine years ago.
Testifying in the trial by jury of David Zerafa, 39, of Nadur, who is pleading not guilty to murdering Dr Grech, 46, Deborah Grech said she was at home having supper with her brother when she heard a sound like that of a gunshot and shouts of ajma.
Ms Grech said that as soon as her mother opened the door, she saw a hand holding a weapon. “I saw the weapon – I saw the barrel,” she said.
She said her mother slammed the door and called their neighbour Maria Scicluna, as she thought that her brother Steve was playing a joke.
Ms Grech said that as they opened the door they saw her father’s briefcase on the steps leading upstairs. “We then realised that he had come home,” Ms Grech said adding that she usually heard her father return home but this time, the wind was strong.
She told the court that she and her mother searched the roof and the garage for her father – “we were looking for him to see what happened”. At one point, her mother left the flat and she followed her a few minutes later. Her mother told her: “I found your father and I think he is dead”.
Her mother handed her the mobile phone to call emergency services but “for a moment I couldn’t even remember the number”.
The jurors the listened to the phone call.
The daughter said she saw her father lying face down with a wound in his head. There were also drag marks to the garage.
After the murder, they moved out of the flat and never slept there again.
“It affected me in the worst way it could – we were half way through O-levels and I almost left school. Something like this cannot not affect you,” she said.
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 today, the court heard that an anonymous phone call had advised the police to investigate Mr Zerafa, whose wife was being represented by lawyer Michael Grech in separation procedures, Inspector Marisa Camilleri told the court this morning.
Inspector Camilleri said she was duty officer in the police control room in 2004 and had taken the anonymous call on the police information helpline. The anonymous caller said that Mr Zerafa was a violent man. She said she informed Inspector Chris Pullicino of the call.
During this morning's trial by jury, before Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano, police inspectors who went on site described the murder scene, saying that Dr Grech's head had been split open with parts of brain matter and blood ending on the wall nearby.
Superintendent Paul Camilleri said there was a trail of blood on the ground, revealing that the victim had probably been dragged into the garage, which was still under construction, after he had been attacked.
VICTIM WAS UNRECOGNISABLE
Mario Saliba, who was the doctor who certified Dr Grech as dead on site, said he went on site with the ambulance. He did not recognize him and only made the connection when he saw some relatives on site. He found Dr Grech's head deformed with the injuries and was under shock because he found out that he knew the victim.
He clarified in court that he was called on site because the health authorities had been informed that there was a gunshot wound but he never saw the actual wound. He only saw the head injury.
Mr Justice Quintano explained to the jurors that anyone could make an anonymous phone call accusing someone of a crime.
He pointed out that a set of documents, presented yesterday in court and filed by Dr Grech on behalf of the accused’s wife Ms Zerafa, included allegations of domestic violence. These documents were not evidence that anything of the sort had happened, he insisted.
These documents were presented by court expert Martin Bajada who also examined the hard drives of Dr Grech’s laptop, computer, his mobile phone and a set of papers found on the crime scene.
When asked by defence lawyer Malcolm Mifsud whether there were any threatening emails, Mr Bajada said none had been found.
The emails had not been examined individually but search words had been used. However, the magistrate presiding over the inquiry had gone through all the emails individually, Mr Bajada said.
Brig. Maurice Calleja and Jesmond Cassar, who were appointed ballistic experts, said the entry wound in Dr Grech's neck was about 10mm by 6mm.
There were no scorch marks on his skin and the gun was fired from a sharp downwards angle. A 9mm bullet, from a semi-automatic, was found in his stomach.
Maria Scicluna who was 18 at the time, said that she was at home studying. She was the victim's neighbour.
“I heard a shot close by but it sounded muffled,” she said.
Just before that, she heard someone close the garage door in the flats below, which meant that Dr Grech had arrived home.
A few seconds after hearing the shot, she heard shouting that was getting fainter. Ms Scicluna recalled that she had called her boyfriend and her brother.
The victim's wife, Maria Grech, then called her and asked her if she had heard the noises.
Minutes later she heard a lot of shouting and realised something had happened to Dr Grech. She did not leave the apartment in the dark because she was afraid.
“I heard people in the road and recognised my aunt’s voice and I called my brother. He passed the phone to my boyfriend who sent the police up to the flat,” she said.