Due to the facts detailed above, the accuser petitions to convict the defendant of the offense of murder under aggravated circumstances, under section 301A(a)(7) of the Law.
The Defendant's Response to the Charge Against Him
- Throughout the defendant's interrogations with the police, he maintained his right to remain silent, so that his version of the incident and the narrative that substantiates his defense were not known to the accuser before the evidence was heard. At the response meeting on October 12, 2021, a general denial of the indictment was delivered, and only about a year later, at the meeting of September 8, 2022, a more detailed response was given, orally, through his defense attorney at the time, Attorney Neil Simon. In accordance with what was stated therein, the defendant confirmed that on the morning of the incident, he arrived at the grandmother's apartment. There, he claimed, a number of people he did not know attacked him, attacked and stabbed him and the deceased. When he saw that the deceased had been stabbed several times, he approached to see his condition, and was shocked by the deceased's condition and his own. According to him, he did not stab the deceased or attack him. After he left the scene, an ambulance arrived, and he himself was in a very unstable condition.
- In other words, the defendant does not deny that he was present at the two scenes where the violent incident took place, and at the relevant time. The main narrative, on which he bases his (belated) defense, is the presence of other unknown persons at the first scene of the house, and the commission of the offenses attributed to him - in fact - by them alone. Alternatively, to the extent that it is decided, at the end of the trial, that the defendant did indeed stab the deceased, we were asked, in the defense's summaries, to determine that no causal connection was proven between these acts and the tragic result of the deceased's death, so that in fact - the cause of his death must be attributed, decisively, to the failed and negligent conduct in which the deceased was treated - whether at the scene, in an ambulance or in the hospital. In other words, it must be determined that the causal connection was severed, and therefore also the defendant's responsibility, for the damage caused to the deceased and for the tragic end of the event described.
- It was copied from Nevo for the sake of good order, and in the context of the defendant's defense, it should be noted that it was represented on behalf of the Public Defender's Office by Attorney Neil Simon, who left the practice of law in favor of a different career, after many years of work. As of the May 1, 2022 meeting, Attorney Ran Avinoam joined the defense team, on behalf of the Public Defender's Office, and after an overlap with Attorney Simon, he continued to represent the defendant alone, and he was the one who submitted the defense summaries in the case.
The Evidence and Testimonies
- The investigation of the incident was conducted, initially, by the Netivot police station, and later by the Negev Police Department. It included the collection of evidence and forensic findings from the various scenes by forensic officers, and the collection of versions from eyewitnesses and other parties - whether they knew the defendant and the deceased before the violent incident, or whether they entered the picture retrospectively. In this context, we note that some of the witnesses who were interrogated and who gave a version in the affair are family members of those involved - who, naturally, have an interest in improving and supporting one of the versions, since they have an interest, to one degree or another, in the outcome. Therefore, we will treat with great caution what is stated in them, and we will recall, as a "self-warning" - that these are not external-objective witnesses. In addition, statements were taken from medical and rescue personnel - starting with the medic, who arrived at the scene when the call was opened and treated the defendant, to the MDA teams, who treated the deceased - both at the scene and during his evacuation in an ambulance, to the doctor, who was in charge of the hospital's emergency team, and who was forced to pronounce the latter dead, not long after.
All of these and others will be reviewed below, and their version will be examined in connection with the question in dispute. Let us briefly list their main points.
- Many witnesses testified on behalf of the accuser, which we will divide into categories, as follows:
Citizens, including family members: Grandmother - Aisha Dadoun (A.T.1); Main Witness - Air Conditioning Technician, M.A. (A.T.3); Another main witness - Neighbor Y.A. (A.T.9); Neighbor H.Z. (A.T.10); Ruthie Dadon (A.T.11); Mor Dadon (A.T.12); Daniel Sarasher (A.T.13); Eliran Sarasher (A.T.14); Mother of the deceased - Riki Dadon (A.T.15); and an employee who cares for the mother of the neighbor Y.A. - T.Z. (A.T.20).