A 37-year-old man from Hamrun was yesterday sentenced to life behind bars after he was found guilty of the double murder of an elderly couple in Santa Lucija more than seven years ago.

Brian Vella was found guilty of murdering Gerald and Josephine Grima, 79 and 64 years respectively, on 10 February 2000 in their apartment which is in the same block where he used to live.

The judge said Vella has 16 convictions on his criminal record. He said this murder was brutal and the crime is very serious.

The jurors, all of whom were males, returned with their verdict after more than seven hours of deliberation. They found Vella, by six votes to three, guilty of murdering the husband and wife during a robbery. They also found him guilty, by seven votes to two, of stealing less than Lm1,000 worth of items from the apartment.

Furthermore, the jurors unanimously found Vella guilty of breaching a conditional discharge on a different crime and committing another crime during the operational period of a suspended jail term.

While the jurors read out their verdict, Vella remained immobile, staring into thin air. He barely blinked an eye-lid when they said he was found guilty of the double murder.

Early in the afternoon on 10 February, Vella met Dominic Bonnici and a third man at the Santa Lucija Nationalist Party club. After drinking for a while with the two men, Vella urged them to help him burgle the Grimas’ residence who he knew lived alone.

During the trial by jury, which began on Monday, the court heard that Vella gagged Mr and Mrs Grima when he covered their mouths with several rounds of brown tape used for packaging.

This was the third time the trial by jury began after the last two trials had to be dissolved because of procedural mistakes.

Since then, Vella filed several applications in different courts, claiming that his right to a fair trial had been breached when his trial by jury was dissolved twice. However, the court ruled that the third attempt at his trial had to go ahead.

Bonnici in the meantime pleaded guilty to the same charges and was jailed for 30 years since he filed an early guilty plea.

In his submissions on punishment, before the judgement was handed down, defence lawyer Anglu Farrugia said that 30 per cent of the jurors believe his client that he did not murder the elderly couple. He said this gave the court the possibility of jailing him for a minimum of 12 of years.

Dr Farrugia said that a change in the law, which changed the procedure in court, worked against his client. As the law stands now, the version of a co-accused does not have to be corroborated by anything. Before, this version had to be sustained by other evidence, even circumstantial evidence.

He said there was a bombardment by the media on this case and Vella therefore did not have a fair trial.

On the other hand, Dr Anthony Barbara said that there is no worse case than this one in which an elderly couple returned home from a village feast only to find the accused who robbed them of their life. Egoistically and blinded by the craving for money, Vella killed two people and let them die a slow and agonising death, he said.

He said life in jail is more than justified for this double murder case. Vella was given various opportunities to get his life back on the right track. He said Vella is the kind of person who in the past assaulted the police. We should give a strong message that not only should these things not happen but should not even be thought of. It was the most horrible death they had. They were left to die slowly.

“For one murder, the punishment is life behind bars. In this case, there are two murders so the punishment should be the highest possible and I am insisting for it,” he said. He said he was not insisting on the request for solitary confinement but at least life in jail”.

Presiding Judge Joseph Galea Debono retuned with a life sentence.

Senior Counsel to the Republic and Chief of the Prosecuting Unit, Dr Anthony Barbara, prosecuted. Dr Anglu Farrugia and Dr Kris Busietta appeared for the accused.