A few hours later, after defendant 1, one of the deceased's spouses, learned that the deceased's body had been found in the forest and a police investigation had been opened, the defendants met near their workplace in Be'er Sheva, where they were waiting for transportation to their workplace's Purim party, talking and planning what to say if they were interrogated by the police; Afterwards, they celebrated at a party in the "Lago" halls in Rishon LeZion, during which they even smoked some of the drug they received from the deceased. On the evening of February 28, 2018, the remaining amount of the drug that the defendants received from the deceased was seized, disposed of near the home of defendant 1, and an examination found that it was 56.5 grams of cannabis (after the defendants had used some of the drug they received from the deceased, before and after the incident).
The Legal Aspect
As noted, the legal dispute between the parties revolved around the crime of murder attributed to the defendants in the indictment, when they confessed to the additional offenses attributed to them in the indictment of arson, carrying a weapon and obstruction of justice.
Admittedly, the argument of the defendants' counsel that the defendants should be convicted of the offense of negligent manslaughter under section 301C of the Law as drafted today, or of the offense of manslaughter under section 298 of the law as drafted at the time of the incident, is based, first and foremost, on the defendants' factual version in their testimony before us, a version which I rejected in detail above. However, the rejection of the defendants' factual version does not exempt the court from the need to examine whether the elements of the crime of murder attributed to the defendants have been proven; In any event, the effect of Amendment 137 to the Law on the defendants' case must be examined, and especially the question of whether there is room to convict them of the "basic" offense of murder under section 300(a) of the Law as it is currently drafted, as a lenient law that must be applied in accordance with the transitional provisions of the amendment.
- The offense of premeditated murder
The offense attributed to the defendants is the offense of premeditated murder, according to section 300(a)(2) of the law as drafted at the time of the incident, prior to the entry into force of Amendment 137 to the Law (hereinafter – the old version), which stipulated as follows: