­­­The wife of a murdered lawyer came face to face with her husband’s killer at the scene of the crime and allegedly recognised him in two police identification parades by his “almond-shaped” eyes, a court heard yesterday.

Maria Grech positively identified David Zerafa, 39, from Nadur, even though he was wearing a balaclava when he allegedly shot her husband Michael Grech, 46, in the neck and then smashed his cranium in with a baseball bat.

During Mr Zerafa’s trial by jury, which began yesterday, the court heard police had solved the case thanks to two inmates at a psychiatric hospital to whom Mr Zerafa had given a blow-by-blow account of how he had committed the murder.

With the amount of detail these two inmates gave, it was obvious only the person who committed the crime could have told them it all

Dr Grech was killed in the evening of May 24, 2004, outside his home in Marsalforn, Gozo.

Prosecuting officer Philip Galea Farrugia, from the Attorney General’s office, told jurors that Mr Zerafa suspected Dr Grech was having an affair with his wife, whom he was representing in separation proceedings, and had blamed him for his marriage break-up.

Dr Galea Farrugia said the accused believed that his estranged wife was using the lawyer to get back at him.

Police Inspector Chris Pullicino, who at the time was heading the police homicide squad, explained that when he got to the scene of the crime, he found a “puzzling” situation.

There was blood in the common area of the block of flats where Dr Grech lived, more blood in a garage of an adjacent apartment block still under construction, where Dr Grech was found, and also in an adjacent street where the police found Dr Grech’s spectacles in a gutter.

There were also lots of documents on the ground and Dr Grech’s briefcase was found on the floor close to his front door.

Ms Grech told the police that she heard commotion in the common area and when she looked outside, she came face to face with an armed man wearing a balaclava.

She backtracked and shut the door when he pointed the weapon at her but in that fleeting moment she established eye contact with him and remembered later, during the investigation, that he had “very particular, almond-shaped eyes”.

After a while, she opened the door and went downstairs where she saw her husband’s briefcase and his car.

She followed the trail of blood to a garage next door and there found her husband’s lifeless body in a pool of blood.

Ms Grech gave the police enough details of the man’s face to help develop an identikit of the assailant.

She was later shown nine photographs of men wearing balaclavas, one of whom was Mr Zerafa, who she immediately picked out as her husband’s killer.

“She was very specific about the eyes which, she said, were very particular and almond shaped.

“She picked the accused’s photo because of these particular eyes,” Mr Pullicino said.

At a later stage, during an identification parade at the police headquarters, Ms Grech again identified Mr Zerafa as her husband’s assailant.

Mr Pullicino said the police had summoned Mr Zerafa the day after the murder, asking about his whereabouts the day before.

At first he said he was asleep at home with his siblings but later changed this version and claimed he was in Malta.

He was released while the police continued investigating but in July 2005, two inmates who had come into contact with Mr Zerafa in a psychiatric ward said he had admitted his involvement in the murder.

Mr Pullicino said the two, Rodney Vella and Steve Spiteri, claimed Mr Zerafa told them that he had murdered the lawyer and gave them a detailed explanation of what he had done.

He allegedly said he killed Dr Grech because he was appearing for his wife during separation proceedings and was also having an affair with her.

Mr Zerafa alleged he and a friend went to his apartment block and waited for him in the common area. When he arrived they started beating him up and then he shot him in the neck.

Dr Grech managed to escape but they caught up with him in the road nearby.

Mr Zerafa told the other patients that he hit him with a baseball bat until he lost consciousness so they dragged him to an open garage nearby.

“The bloodied drag mark corroborated this story,” the inspector said, adding that the inmates also told him that Mr Zerafa changed his clothes in a room he had close to Ramla Bay.

“With the amount of detail these two inmates gave us, it was obvious that only the person who committed the crime could have told them all this.

“The details convinced me morally that their version was what Mr Zerafa had told them,” he said.

He added that the inmates also told the police about an axe Mr Zerafa had at home with a rope tied to its end so it would not slip while he used it against his wife.

During a confrontation at the police headquarters between the two inmates, separately, and the accused, Mr Zerafa at first accused them of lying and then told them that he was only bluffing and joking. Mr Spiteri has since died of a drug overdose in prison.

The trial continues today.

Lawyers Philip Galea Farrugia and Maurizio Cordina prosecuted while Malcolm Mifsud appeared for the accused. Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Kathleen Grima are appearing as parte civile.

Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano is presiding over the trial.