Although the difference between the defendants' testimonies in court and their version in the police focused only on a few details, they actually presented a substantially different version from the one they presented to the police, according to which the deceased's death was caused by mistake. According to them, they did not intend to murder the deceased, but only to frighten him, in order not to pay him for the drugs; They beat the deceased a few times, with their hands alone, in order to frighten him, and as a result he fell and hit his head with a stone; They did not beat the deceased after he fell and did not beat him with kicks, fists or objects, and his death was caused by the stone strike; They dragged him into the car in order to improve his condition, and decided to burn the car as a result of panic and their desire to obscure the evidence that would lead to them, but only after they confirmed that the deceased was dead; And they didn't see the gun until shortly before the car was set on fire.
As stated, I determined that from the internal examination of the defendants' statements to the police, there are signs of truth, and that the incident took place in a manner similar to that described by the defendants in their statements, but together and as a result of prior planning; and that the external evidence detailed above strengthens what emerges from the statements made by the police, even on points that are currently in dispute. Beyond the aforesaid, and to a certain extent even more than necessary, I will note that the defendants' testimonies in court left an unreliable and processed impression, so that this is another reason for rejecting their version before us.
The Defendants' Version in Court - A Suppressed Version
It should already be noted that the weight of the defendants' new version is very low, since it is a suppressed version that no satisfactory reason has been given for its suppression, and it is clear that it was corrected and perfected after the defendants were exposed to the totality of the evidence, while carefully investigating and deliberately omitting all those details that could substantiate the offense of murder. Thus, "miraculously," the defendants presented in their testimonies a new and upgraded version regarding the core of the incident, in which the most essential details of the conviction for the crime of murder were changed or omitted – the existence of a premeditated plan to kill the deceased, and the manner in which they beat him and caused his death.