Man jailed over 'wild west-style shooting'

A Birkirkara man was yesterday jailed for 30 months after jurors returned a 7-2 verdict finding him not guilty of trying to kill his brother-in-law but guilty of trying to seriously injure him when he fired a shotgun in his direction.

Victor Pace stood in the dock, looking at the ground, as he heard Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono explain that the court could never condone such violent actions which the judge described as "wild west-style shooting".

On handing down judgment, Mr Justice Galea Debono noted that the jurors, all men, had found Mr Pace guilty of trying to seriously injure his brother-in-law Christopher Zarb in Bahar ic-Caghaq on August 5, 2000.

The jurors unanimously found Mr Pace guilty of keeping and carrying a shotgun without a licence - a charge to which Mr Pace's lawyers had admitted as they claimed that their client had fired the shotgun with the intention of damaging Mr Zarb's house.

The judge also heard submissions on punishment made by both the defence and the prosecution.

Lawyer Anglu Farrugia, who represented Mr Pace together with lawyer Edward Gatt, called on the judge to hand down a suspended jail term. He argued that the jurors had not found Mr Pace guilty of attempted murder and added that Mr Pace had acted in a moment of anger, following allegations by Mr Zarb and his wife Dianne that Mr Pace had harassed Mrs Zarb.

Dr Farrugia added that today his client's marriage was doing well and he was the family's breadwinner.

Assistant Attorney General Anthony Barbara argued that this was a case involving a man who took up a firearm against another. The verdict showed Mr Pace did so with the intention to seriously injure Mr Zarb and society could not be left with the message that one can get away with such actions. He called on the judge to hand down an effective jail term.

Mr Justice Galea Debono noted that Mr Pace was facing a jail term ranging from between two months and four years.

He ruled that, although the incident was triggered by a disagreement between the Pace and Zarb families, it had ended up in a wild west-style shooting incident.

"Civil society should not tolerate that a person keeps and carries a weapon... Violence, especially that involving a firearm, deserves to be punished with an effective jail term," he said.

The judge jailed Mr Pace for 30 months and ordered that the time he spent in preventive custody be deducted from his jail term.