Updated | Jury returns not guilty verdict in Cassone murder trial

The man accused of murdering an employee at an Italian restaurant in St Julian’s in January 1993 has been declared not guilty by a jury of his peers.

The man was found not guilty of wilful homicide by a unanimous verdict and not guilty of the other six heads of indictment: theft aggravated by violence, means, time and value, detaining a person against their will, possession of an unlicensed firearm and carrying a loaded weapon by 7 votes to 2. The verdict was reached after five hours of deliberation on the 16th day of the trial.

Earlier today Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi had concluded his closing address, having begun the painstaking process of summing up the evidence for the benefit of the jurors on Saturday. 

The man on trial, who cannot be named as he was a minor at the time, was accused of killing 58-year-old Vittorio Cassone, who died at the Chef Italy in St Julian's after being shot in the chest by a masked robber, despite handing over some Lm150 (€350).

Defence lawyer Franco Debono had attacked what he described as an “erratic and approximate” police investigation and highlighted inconsistencies in the testimony of the Italian witnesses, arguing that there was more than reasonable doubt required to exonerate the accused.

Several of the defence's arguments had centred around the figure of Victor Testa, who had also been arrested by police in connection with the murder. Testa had been asked to give the accused a lift on the day of the shooting and had told the investigating police inspector that the accused had fired a shot out of the driver-side window. Testa had been questioned but after giving the police a strong alibi, he ceased to be considered a suspect. He was not tested for gunshot residue at the time. Testa had released a statement to police, but this was not exhibited in the acts of the case.

The defence had also savaged the credibility of the Italian witnesses, pointing out that the cook at Chef Italy, Silvano D’Agostini, had since married the victim's widow and was struggling with his conscience, and another Italian witness, Marco Russo, had appeared to pick out a person who was not the accused from pictures of the identification parade. Another witness had initially picked out a person who was not the accused no less than eight times.

Prosecutor Kevin Valletta posited that the witnesses' unwillingness to conclusively identify the accused had been down to fear. The lawyer accused the defence of “putting the victims on trial”, arguing that all of the eyewitnesses had picked out the accused from a line-up, even if they had only been 99% certain.

The prosecution's case had been hampered by the fact that the initial inquiry into the murder had failed to come up with any conclusive evidence, with police opting not to charge anyone at the time. It was only ten years later, in 2003, that the investigation was reopened by the newly set up Homicide Squad.

Lawyers Kevin Valletta and Anne Marie Cutajar prosecuted.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel.