A shopkeeper has been cleared of causing the death of a 15-year-old girl who bought alcohol from his store, got drunk, felt sick on her friend’s balcony and fell to her death on a Sliema street.

What started out as a fun day for the two “very close friends,” ended in tragedy later that evening when Julia Marra leaned over the balcony railing to throw up.

That fatal fall triggered criminal investigations which resulted in charges of involuntary homicide against the owner of the mini market store from where the girls had purchased alcohol earlier that day.

Steve Grima, 47, was charged with selling alcohol to underage customers on May 12, 2020, hours before tragedy struck at around 8.50pm.

He protested his innocence.

The victim’s friend, a Russian girl, recalled how they first met at her home at a Tigné Point apartment block, before heading to the beach in Sliema.

“Then we went to get alcohol and went to the other beach, Exiles. Then we drank, swam more and we walked all the way back to my house and then the accident happened.” The witness said they bought a bottle of rosé wine, two beers, alcoholic lemonades and a travel-size bottle of vodka from a mini market along The Strand.

She identified Grima from that night but she knew him through previous visits.

Once they reached the flat, Marra, an Italian national living in San Ġwann, started complaining that her head was “spinning”.

She went to the bathroom to wash her face with cold water before going to her friend’s room.

“Then she went out to get some fresh air because she was really panicking… and crying,” recalled the witness, explaining that her friend would usually cry when drunk.

She was scared of being told off by her parents for getting drunk.

The witness said she then helped her friend to sit on a chair on the balcony outside her bedroom.

“Her parents kept calling her,” testified the teen.

'This massive like thump'

The Russian girl went indoors momentarily to charge her phone when she heard “this massive like thump… I wasn’t there at the exact moment of the fall”.

The witness’s mother was just about to shower when the incident happened.

The woman testified she had returned home a while earlier and was taking a phone call when her daughter popped into her room to say “hi!”

While getting ready to shower the mother suddenly heard “some strange noisy sound from outside”.

Her daughter rushed in, saying Marra had fallen from the balcony.

“I was hoping for a miracle,” recalled the mother as she ran downstairs, barefoot and panicked.

The ambulance and police were called.

A paramedic who got to the scene told her there was nothing they could do about it.

When the victim’s mother called her number, she handed the phone to the policeman who took the call.

During the court case, a medico-legal expert confirmed there was no foul play. Traces of vomit on the balcony indicated the victim had leaned over the railing to throw up and toppled down.

Julia Marra

Massive head injury

Pathologists certified she suffered a massive head injury consistent with a fall. Toxicological tests confirmed she had consumed alcohol shortly before the incident.

When delivering judgment the court, presided over by Magistrate Gabriella Vella, said it was necessary to determine a causal link to find the shopkeeper guilty.

There was no doubt that the girls had been in possession of alcohol that day, as evidenced by Snapshot pictures they posted. The expert said in those circumstances a person would be disoriented, unable to focus, walk in a straight line or lose balance.

Forensic evidence confirmed the victim’s state.

However, although her friend insisted that all drinks were bought from the accused’s shop, the court doubted whether that was so. The cocktail mix in the girls’ possession was only available from one particular chain store at the time.  Moreover, the friend never said Grima sold the drinks. She said that “there were two men”, the accused and “an older gentleman”.

Finally, the shopkeeper was charged with vicarious liability as the holder of the licence. But a representative of the Trade Licensing Unit Commerce testified that since 2016, such commercial outlets no longer required a licence to operate.

So Grima could only be held personally liable and that liability was not proved, concluded the court.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel.