The four men found guilty for their part in the murders of Carmel Chircop and Daphne Caruana Galizia will spend the next several years behind bars, in large part thanks to the testimony of hitman-turned-state witness Vince Muscat.

All four men will learn how much time they will serve in prison on Tuesday morning, when a judge hands down their sentences. 

Adrian and Robert Agius (known as Ta’ Maksar) and their associates Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio stood accused of crimes in relation to Chircop’s 2015 murder, but only two of them, Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, were defending charges linked to Caruana Galiza’s murder.

It soon became evident that the trial would hinge on the testimony of Vince Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, who is currently serving a 15-year sentence for the murder of Caruana Galizia.

The fates of Muscat and the Ta’ Maksar gang were intertwined right from the start.

Vella and the Agius brothers were arrested on a February day as they were spotted speeding off as police were on their way to capture them at their Baħrija homes.

Just hours earlier, Muscat had pleaded guilty to his role in the Caruana Galizia’s murder, after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors to provide information about the murder.

The plea deal set Muscat up as the prosecution’s star witness, expected to testify openly throughout the trial.

His testimony did not disappoint, giving a blow-by-blow account of the machinations behind both Caruana Galizia’s and Chircop’s murders.

Killers turned to Ta’ Maksar brothers for bomb

Muscat was the first person to flag middleman Melvin Theuma to the police, giving a name and a face to the veiled references (“the person whose name begins with M”) to Theuma captured in the monitored phone calls made by the Degiorgios in prison.

During the trial, Muscat told jurors how an early plan to kill Caruana Galizia with an AK-47 rifle, supposedly at Chris Cardona’s request, went nowhere, only to resurface shortly before the 2017 election when Theuma approached Degiorgio.

Muscat recounted how the new plan involved shooting Caruana Galizia through a window in her home using a scoped rifle brought by Vella and Robert Agius, only for Degiorgio to get cold feet at the last minute.

With the rifle plan out of the window, the hitmen turned to the Ta’ Maksar brothers to get their hands on a bomb.

Muscat described how, once the bomb arrived, he helped Alfred Degiorgio move it from Naxxar to the same Santa Venera garage which, years earlier, was used to store the stolen getaway car used in Carmel Chircop’s murder.

He proceeded to give a detailed account of the events of the day of Caruana Galizia’s assassination, as well as the evening before, when the bomb was placed in her car.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb in 2017. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

And Muscat’s recollections of the murder’s aftermath were equally compelling, describing the gang’s efforts to clear their hideout and wait for the Marsa police raid in which they would be arrested.

The trial also revealed how Muscat’s decision to collaborate with the authorities caused panic among the gang.

Theuma told jurors that in 2018 Yorgen Fenech told him to “go look for Ta’ Maksar because il-Koħħu is revealing that the bomb was prepared by them”.

The jury later heard from Muscat’s father-in-law how Jamie Vella and Robert Agius offered him €1,500 per month to buy Muscat’s silence.

The FBI’s work on the case is likely to also have played a key part in the verdict.

An FBI report revealed that the SIM cards inside the bomb used in Caruana Galizia’s murder and the burner phone used to detonate it were both bought in November 2016 and activated for the very first time on January 10, 2017.

Most tellingly, once activated, they connected to an antenna in the Żebbuġ industrial estate, close to Robert Agius’s garage.

Chircop shot as he opened his garage door

Muscat’s recollection of Carmel Chircop’s murder was just as vivid as that of Caruana Galizia’s.

Muscat told jurors how George Degiorgio and the Maksar brothers promised him €20,000 for his part in Chircop’s October 2015 murder, even being given a €5,000 deposit ahead of the deed. Adrian Agius was particularly keen to get the hit done over a financial dispute with the lawyer, Muscat said.

Adrian Agius had long been in investigators’ sights for the Chircop murder, having already been questioned by police after his wife told police that he had been embroiled in a financial dispute.

But without a witness to corroborate their case, police released Agius without charge.

This time, with Muscat’s testimony in tow, things were different.

Muscat told jurors how the gang quickly set the wheels in motion, spying on Chircop dining with his wife at a Vittoriosa restaurant and later at a Naxxar café, as well as at his Valletta office, before eventually discovering the Birkirkara garage complex, which would become the scene of the crime.

The site of Carmel Chircop's murder in October 2015. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

Muscat recounted the morning of the murder in meticulous detail.

He told jurors he set off early, first picking up George Degiorgio at 5am, then collecting Jamie Vella and the stolen getaway car from a Santa Venera garage.

Degiorgio took the wheel of the car, with Muscat and Vella seated in the back seat donning balaclavas, hidden behind the car’s tinted glass windows. Resting between them was an AK-47 rifle, brought along “just in case”, together with Vella’s revolver and Degiorgio’s automatic pistol.

Shortly after arriving at Chircop’s Birkirkara garage, the trio spotted the lawyer approaching, briefcase in hand. As he opened the garage door, Vella shot him four or five times, before making their getaway and eventually parting ways, after dumping their clothes in a garbage bag near a Santa Venera school.

Muscat described how the trio had met up again days later, collecting the murder weapon from the Santa Venera garage where it had been stashed and disposing of it amid Marsa’s silt deposits.

Inconsistencies or selective memory?

Defence lawyers sought to poke holes in Muscat’s testimony, questioning his motives behind speaking out and frequently accusing him of bending the truth.

For a start, lawyers said, Muscat’s vague memory of certain events raised suspicion, standing in stark contrast to the “airtight” testimony of others, including that of Melvin Theuma.

The getaway car used in the Chircop murder was light blue, not dark as Muscat claimed, defence lawyer Rene Darmanin pointed out. And while Muscat said he sat on the backseat, he had previously testified that he had been asked to sit in front.

Muscat’s claim that he received €20,000 for his role in the Chircop murder was also inconsistent with previous testimony, in which he suggested the fee could have been €30,000.

Defence lawyers also expressed their incredulity at Muscat’s version of events during the morning of Chircop’s killing, with Muscat claiming to have simply sat in the back seat as Vella fired the gun and Degiorgio drove the getaway car.

“So, they paid you to sit down?” Darmanin asked.

And although Muscat had said that Jamie Vella and Robert Agius procured the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia, he admitted that he had never himself witnessed them deliver the bomb, only being told by Degiorgio that either Vella or Agius would leave the bomb under an overturned boat in the Marsa potato shed.

But despite defence lawyers’ efforts, Muscat’s compelling testimony left little doubt in jurors’ minds, with the jury overwhelmingly finding all four men guilty on most counts.