Sentence cut for murder accomplice

A man found guilty of being an accomplice in the murder of a bank messenger had his 31-and-a-half year jail term slightly reduced to 30 years on appeal yesterday.

Joseph Zammit, 52, of Floriana was jailed in February 2009 after jurors found him guilty of being an accomplice in the murder of Alphonse Ferriggi 11 years ago.

Mr Ferriggi, 42, was delivering internal bank mail when a black Volkswagen Golf drove up and a shot rang out, hitting him in the head as he stood outside the Bank of Valletta branch in San Ġwann. The surveillance cameras outside the bank recorded everything except the identity of the people in the car.

Mr Zammit had admitted to being the driver of the getaway car but not the one who pulled the trigger.

In the appeal, his lawyers, Josè Herrera and David Farrugia Sacco, argued that there had been an incorrect appreciation of the evidence and that the punishment was excessive. The court, presided over by Acting Chief Justice Raymond Pace, Mr Justice David Scicluna and Mr Justice Joseph Zammit Mckeon, dismissed both arguments. They found another argument, however, to be correct.

One of the charges on which Mr Zammit had been found guilty did not result, his lawyers held. There was no proof to show he was an accomplice in the crime of illegally possessing the gun used to shoot the victim because the person who fired the gun could not be identified.

Thus, the court reduced Mr Zammit’s jail term by one year and six months.