Murder victim Sandra Ramirez was stabbed and slashed 26 times using a knife her ex-partner bought the previous day from a supermarket, a court heard on Tuesday.

Ramirez was found dead on a bed inside a rental apartment on Triq Sir George Borg, Sliema on January 13. Her ex-boyfriend Fabian Eliuth Garcia Parada stands accused of murdering her.

Prosecutors told a court on Tuesday that the murder weapon was likely a blue Tescoma knife which Garcia Parada purchased together with two bottles of wine one day before the murder.

A receipt for that purchase from Pavi supermarket in Qormi was found inside the apartment where Ramirez’s body was found. CCTV footage from the supermarket showed the accused there on the afternoon of January 12, holding the knife and wine he was buying.

The knife was found in a plastic tray in the apartment’s kitchen. It appeared to have been washed but some traces of blood were still visible, Inspector Wayne Camilleri told the court.

The case against Garcia Parada got off to a false start at the first hearing, when his lawyers challenged an anti-femicide law they claimed breached their client’s fundamental rights.

On Tuesday, Magistrate Monica Vella turned down their request to refer their complaint to the constitutional court and proceeded to hear evidence.

'I murdered my ex'

Lead investigator Wayne Camilleri testified that he received a call from the police control room at around 6:20am on January 13 about the suspected murder.

A man had walked into the Sliema police station, mobile phone in hand with a message in Spanish translated via app into English.

The message read “I murdered my ex-partner during an argument inside my home,” and included an address in Sliema.

The man was frisked, handcuffed and read his legal rights in Spanish. Meanwhile, a sergeant headed to that Sliema address and entered the apartment using keys found on the suspect.

Inside, the officer found a “macabre scene”.

A woman was lying face-up on a bed inside the bedroom at the far end of the one-bedroom flat. She was covered from head to toe in a white throw that was visibly bloodstained.

The sergeant, who also testified on Tuesday, told the court that he had pulled down the throw, to possibly administer first aid. But it was too late: she was certified dead by an emergency doctor who arrived on site.

A post-mortem examination carried out later that day confirmed that she had been stabbed and slashed 26 times.

Inspector Camilleri told the court that the suspect was also carrying another mobile phone when he gave himself in. The phone belonged to the murder victim, Ramirez.

Accused fell silent when shown post-breakup photo

Garcia Parada told a police constable at the Sliema police station that he and Ramirez had dated for two years and that he had proposed to her in Paris.

He referred to her as his “girlfriend” and said the two were happy together.

But he went silent when shown a photo of his ex with a new man, and turned the photo upside down.

When asked who that man was, the accused to the police that “he didn’t know and didn’t want to know.”

Shown images of the victim at the murder scene, the accused “seemed more interested in what he was to wear and to brush his teeth,” Camilleri testified.

The accused did not speak when shown a photo of the murder weapon, when asked about his relationship with the accused or why he had killed her.

He told the police that he was a teacher in Colombia, his home country, but did not speak English and therefore worked as a dishwasher at a restaurant in Qormi.

Inspector Camilleri told the court that the suspect communicated with a police constable at the police station via Google Translate. The constable said he stopped speaking to the suspect the moment he asked for a lawyer.

Garcia Parada had a cut on his hand, and Inspector Camilleri said he instructed his subordinates to stop him from washing his hands until he was tested by forensic experts. His clothes and shoes were also preserved for DNA testing.

Police spoke to people who knew both Ramirez and Garcia Parada, who said Ramirez had split up with the accused but allowed him to continue living at the Sliema apartment until he found somewhere else to stay.

Ramirez slept in the bedroom while Garcia Parada slept in the living room, friends told police. Moreover, Ramirez had a new boyfriend, possibly a taxi driver.

Timeline leading to murder

The court was told that Ramirez, the murder victim, entered the Sliema apartment at 7.57pm on the evening before she was killed. At 9.20pm, one of her friends also went to the apartment. Seven minutes later, the two women stepped outside and got into a vehicle, possibly a cab.

Ramirez returned to the apartment at 12:46am on January 13. That was when she was last seen alive.

Garcia Parada was inside the apartment at that time: CCTV footage captured him walking into it roughly one hour earlier, at 11.53pm.

Earlier that day, he was seen entering Pavi Supermarket at 4.14pm on January 12, and then at a supermarket cashier buying two bottles of wine and a knife nine minutes later.

The accused walked out of the Sliema apartment at 6:07am on January 13. He went back inside a minute later and quickly emerged again. At 6.22am he entered the Sliema police station.

CCF fails to escort prisoner to court

At the end of the siting, the court, presided over by Magistrate Monica Vella declared that there was sufficient prima facie evidence for the accused to face trial on indictment.

Tuesday’s hearing began two-and-a-half hours late, because prison officials failed to escort the accused to court. The magistrate noted that it was the second time in five days that an accused person was not brought to court for a scheduled hearing, and ordered the director of prisons to provide an explanation at the next court hearing.

AG lawyers Ramon Bonett Sladden and Kaylie Bonett prosecuted together with Inspectors Wayne Camilleri and Michael Vella. Lawyers Jose’ Herrera, Yanika Bugeja, Matthew Xuereb and Edward Camilleri are defence counsel. Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Jacob Magri are appearing parte civile.