Defence raises doubts on Deniro Magri’s connection to Marsa murder

A court will decide on Friday whether to grant bail to the man accused of February’s shooting of 25-year-old Sylvester Farrugia in Marsa.

Farrugia was found shot dead, besides a stolen car, a short distance from Deniro Magri’s house on 12 February.

Magri is pleading self-defence to charges of murder, claiming to have opened fire on unknown persons, after he disrupted an attempt to set his front door on fire. The victim is thought to be one of the arsonists, police having found in his garage evidence linking him to the rags soaked with an accelerant which had been placed against Magri’s door.

The court had been told in previous sittings that Magri had told police that he had bought a pistol and a CCTV system after receiving threats. Whilst the rags were recovered from the scene, the murder weapon remains elusive.

This morning, Magri’s defence counsel questioned the links between the victim and the accused.

Lawyers Gianella de Marco and Franco Debono, representing the accused, made their case for justifiable homicide, saying the law allowed killing in cases of self-defence where the life of an individual or his family was at stake.

But they also raised doubts as to whether the shots fired by the accused had actually hit anyone. The defence pointed out that no blood had been found outside the front door or in the street outside, and that while residents had heard gunshots, they had not heard any cries of pain as a result from being shot.

De Marco argued that if the men complicit in the arson attempt had continued to flee after the shot was fired, this would indicate that nobody had in fact been injured by the bullets.

Just because the only shooting sounds reported on the night of the murder happened to take outside the accused’s house, this did not necessarily mean that it was the only shooting that took place that night.

On its part, the prosecution argued that the court’s role at this stage was not to decide the merits of Magri’s actions.

The prosecution took issue with the claim of there being no link between Farrugia and Magri, saying that it had been found that mutual friend owned a bar in Zurrieq.

Prosecuting police inspector Keith Arnaud stressed that the accused, should have called the police if he really felt that he or his family’s safety was under threat. Magistrate Aaron Bugeja is expected to issue a decree as to whether Magri will be indicted for murder, together with a decision on the issue of Magri’s bail, tomorrow.

Lawyer Jason Azzopardi is appearing in parte civile for the victim’s family.

Magistrate Aaron Bugeja presided.