Three men accused of murdering a man in row over prostitution behaved in a "panicked" manner, a taxi driver who picked them up after the fatal stabbing has told a court. 

A taxi driver testified in court on Thursday in the compilation of evidence against Ilie Constantin, 31, and his cousins Ionut Iulian Tanase, 35, and Dan-Andrei Tanase, 32 all from Romania.

They deny murdering Joseff Rivas, who was stabbed to death outside a Paceville cafeteria in Ross Street, corner with St George’s Road on December 5 last year. 

The driver working for a local courier company, testified about an order he had received on December 5 afternoon from “John”.

The caller sounded “panicked”, said the driver, as he recounted the events of that afternoon when he was just one week into his new job. 

'Drive, drive, drive'

As he waited at the pickup point, two men “jogged up” getting hurriedly into the cab. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” the passenger next to the driver had rapped as a third man joined the other two inside the cab. They were the three men now accused of murder.

Then “drive, drive, drive,” shouted the passenger as he instructed the driver to take the route from the pickup point to the Westin hotel, then Portomaso and after a second turning onto Swieqi.

At one point, the passengers received a call from a woman who was screaming and crying, speaking their language. 

He dropped the trio off at Triq il-Keffa, some way away from a corner grocery store.

They paid him €20 in cash and he drove off. 

Under cross-examination by lawyer Franco Debono, the witness explained that the men seemed panicked. 

“Could their behaviour indicate that they were afraid and wanted to flee?” asked Debono.

“Could be… I didn’t know… they seemed panicked when they got in.”

Rental property 'a disaster'

The court also heard from the landlord of the property where the 44-year-old Romanian victim had stayed.

On the day after the incident, the victim’s passport and personal belongings were handed over to police by the rental property owner at Marsascala where Rivas and his friends had been staying. 

He testified about the last-minute booking he had received through booking.com on December 3 for a three-night stay for four adults at his penthouse. 

Shortly after the booking request, at around 3pm, the man got a call from a local number. 

The caller was a foreign female who said that she had placed the booking for the nights between December 3 and 6. 

But a day before their scheduled departure, the landlord went to check on his tenants who told him they would be leaving later that same evening. 

He later described to police as three foreign men, “one tall, one fat, one wearing a cap”.

So, on the following day, he returned to his penthouse. 

The place was “a disaster”, recalled the witness, with reference to the mess left behind by his tenants. 

Spotting a suitcase and jacket inside the flat, the owner called out cautiously, “hello, hello” thinking that there must have been someone inside. 

But there was no reply.

The place was empty except for a jacket left hanging there, a suitcase stuffed with clothes and a passport belonging to Rivas. 

At the time, the landlord had no idea that the passport holder had been involved in a violent incident reported on social media. 

But later, when the victim’s name was published, he immediately called the Żabbar police station where he later handed over Rivas’s belongings, against signature. 

The witness also produced information about the booking, the confirmation call he had received as well as the credit card details of the customer. 

Dan-Andrei Tanase and his partner were staying in a rented apartment whose owner was also summoned to testify on Thursday. 

The witness produced a copy of the lease agreement which ran from December 1, identifying Dan-Andrei as the contact person from whom he regularly collected the rent in cash. 

The tenant had also requested another apartment for his cousin.

The landlord had offered another nearby property at Ross Street but had no idea who was staying there, saying that it was a short-term let and he had always communicated with Dan-Andrei. 

Police witnesses involved in the murder investigation also testified on Thursday. 

An officer from the Homicide Squad had gathered information from potential witnesses close to the crime scene. 

An employee at a nearby commercial outlet told police that one of the persons involved in the aggression used to go to the shop, sometimes alone or with two others, morning or afternoon. 

They sometimes stayed for an hour or so or just a few minutes but never mingled with other customers. 

One of the men used to chat with him in English, the witness had said. 

The case, presided over by Magistrate Nadine Lia, continues in April.

Inspector Kurt Zahra prosecuted, together with AG lawyers Darlene Grima and Kaylie Bonett. Lawyers Franco Debono, Arthur Azzopardi, Charmaine Cherrett and Jacob Magri were defence counsel.