The killing was premeditated, Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano heard yesterday. Up to a week before it happened, the accused agreed with two accomplices to kill the elderly Cospicua woman.
Saviour Mangion was just 21 at the time. Mr Mangion, described by Judge Joseph Galea Debono as a serial killer when he condemned him to life in jail in another murder trial, yesterday changed his mind at the last minute, pleading not guilty to fatally stabbing Maria Stella Magrin, 68, of Cospicua, on 29 October, 1986, almost 26 years ago. Ms Magrin was found in a pool of blood in her home, and the autopsy showed she had been stabbed 13 times.
Apart from the murder, he is also charged with having a weapon, holding the woman against her will, and stealing about €14,000 from her home. The police were called in by President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, then a Nationalist MP, who was her neighbour. He had heard her moaning.
Mr Mangion’s murder arraignment was made in May, 2005, and the following July seven out of nine jurors found him mentally stable to stand trial.
Mr Mangion has been convicted of two other murders, for which he was sentenced to 21 years in jail for one, and given a life sentence for the other.
His first victim was Rozina Zammit, 54 of Safi, who was killed in February, 1984 at her home. She had been stabbed 37 times.
Ms Magrin’s killing followed two years later.
The third victim was Francesco Saverio Cassar, 75, who was killed in August, 1998. Mr Cassar lived in Zejtun with his sister, then aged 71. The sister was laid upon as soon as she opened the door and the accused turned on her brother when he came to help her. She survived, but the brother died of stab wounds in the stomach.
Dr Simon Micallef Stafrace is appearing for the accused. The prosecution is led by Dr Nadine Sant.
The Magrin murder investigation saw a breakthrough 20 years after the killing was committed: Mr Mangion had boasted with some people that he had killed and not been found out, prosecutor Dr Sant told the court. Mr Mangion had gone to the victim’s house with a certain Oswaldo Spiteri, and Oswaldo’s uncle, Leli.
Mr Spiteri had admitted his complicity, saying he had gone with his uncle and the accused to the elderly woman’s house with the intention of robbing her and killing her. The three used to meet near the Rialto building, where the woman would pass by on her way to hear Mass. She was a spinster and had lived for some time with her brother, until he died.
Mr Spiteri told the police that the accused took out a knife and stabbed Ms Magrin repeatedly until she fell to the floor and died. After blurting that out to the police, Mr Spiteri committed suicide in the police lock up. Efforts to revive him had been made but death followed the next day. The uncle, Leli, died a natural death in 2004.
Inspector Chris Pullicino said that when he first questioned the accused, Mr Mangion denied involvement but then he admitted and took him to where the murder had been committed.