Branded a serial killer by the presiding judge, Salvatore Mangion was yesterday jailed for life.
It took jurors four hours to find the 45-year-old guilty, by eight votes to one, of killing Rosina Zammit, 54, by stabbing her 37 times during a robbery in which he made away with a paltry Lm200 (€466) in 1984.
He killed the woman with a foot-long knife in her house, in circumstances similar to another murder for which he was already serving a 21-year jail term.
He had been jailed for murdering Francis Caruana and trying to kill his sister Josephine during a robbery at their home in Żejtun. He has a pending case for the alleged murder of Maria Stella Magrin in 1986 in a botched robbery.
In handing down judgment, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono commented on the tragic nature of the case, pointing out that the elderly woman had been murdered in her own home for little money. That was not enough, the judge pointed out, because 14-and-a-half years later, Mr Mangion did it again to another elderly person in Żejtun and also tried to kill his sister.
"In these circumstances, Mr Mangion can be described as a serial killer and is a menace to society and absolutely cannot be trusted outside," Mr Justice Galea Debono said, stressing that the prison authorities had a huge responsibility to see that he was not allowed out under no circumstance.
Defence lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace asked the judge to consider his client's state of mental health.
The prosecuting lawyer from the Attorney General's Office, Leonard Caruana, compared the case to that of David Norbert Schembri, who is also serving life for killing his former girlfriend, stabbing her 49 times.
The judge delivered a life sentence, his last before he officially retires on July 17. He also ordered Mr Mangion to pay €4,993.13 in court expenses.
Mr Mangion had raised the issue of his mental health before the trial, claiming he was unfit to be tried. But a jury dismissed the claim after three psychologists testified that even, though he suffered from chronic paranoid psychosis, his condition did not affect the veracity of the police statements he had made.
When he testified last Tuesday, Mr Mangion told the court he had admitted to the murder only because he was offered a carton of cigarettes and a plate of eggs and chips by investigating Police Inspector Chris Pullicino.
He insisted he had done nothing wrong but was not believed by the jurors once again.
The police got onto the case after he revealed "jokingly" to an inmate that he was behind Ms Zammit's murder.
He later told the police he had been on the look-out for the victim for around two weeks before the murder. He spoke to her regularly and had almost befriended her while taking note of her movements.
On the day of the murder, he knocked on the door of her house in Safi after she returned from Mass at 6.30 p.m. as she did every day. When she opened the door, he walked in and pressed the 30 centimetre-long knife against her neck. When she started screaming, he stabbed her, finishing her off in the bedroom, when she got stuck between two beds, trying unsuccessfully to shield herself with her arms.
When he was done, he made off with about Lm200 (€466), hidden in two ceramic statues, and left the blood-soaked scene to catch a bus to Żejtun where he got rid of his blood-stained clothes and the weapon in a well. That same day he spent all the money in Paceville, leaving just enough for him to get home in a taxi.