Three police officers and an equal number of eyewitnesses testified Thursday at Limassol court, in the trial of 31-year-old Christakis Thoma who is accused of taking the lives of three people in a frenzied knife attack last November in the busy Anexartisias area of the city.
Thoma, denies the premeditated murders of brothers Parashos and Constantinos Ntorzi, 19 and 21, and Emilios Miltiadous, 24, on the night of November 24 after which he fled the scene but was arrested two days later.
The court first heard the testimony of a police investigator describing what unfolded the night of the killings on the basis of investigations made. A map of the area was presented showing the roughly 500- metre route the perpetrator took when he followed the victims
The officer then testified that Thoma said “I was wrong, I know that I killed three people and do not know how to deal with it.” to police on being arrested.
Thomas argued that everything started when he broke up with a girl he was seeing, who according to him, persuaded the Ntorzi brothers to phone and continually disturb not only him, but one of his two underage children, something he considered a misunderstanding once it was sorted out following the intervention of mutual acquaintances.
However, Thoma said one of the Ntorzi brothers accused him of badmouthing his fianceé and following a telephone conversation, he agreed to meet with them in his father’s souvlakia restaurant on Heroes Square the evening of the killings.
According to Thoma the three youths arrived outside the restaurant and began swearing at him, to which he asked them to sit down and accept his hospitality. He claimed he lost his temper when they continued to curse him and his children, and that when he grabbed a knife to intimidate them, they began to throwing chairs at him.
Thoma then pursued the three young men, while his father followed him, calling him to stop. He also stated that, after he had stabbed Constantinos Ntorzi, the victim’s mobile rang and Thoma saw that it was the victim’s father, to whom he answered saying “Are you happy with what I’ve done to them?” before telling him to come to the restaurant to pick up the cell phone.
Thoma told the court he had not realised he had killed the victims and returned to the restaurant, where the mother of the two brothers arrived and to whom he gave the mobile phone belonging to her son. He continued to work until he found out from the internet that the three were dead.
He then attempted, with the help of friends to make his way to the north of the island but ultimately chose to go to an uninhabited house in Lania, where he was later discovered and arrested, though claims he intended to visit his children and hand himself in to police.
Prosecution lawyer Andreas Aristides presented six witnesses, the fourth of whom said that he saw two of the three victims stumble and fall to the ground during the chase with Thoma kneeling on them and repeatedly stabbing. The witness also said that he did not hear any of the victims swearing.
The sixth witness said he had seen another person, who is also expected to appear as a prosecution witness, follow the perpetrator and ask him to throw away the knife and that Thoma, having placed it behind his waist, under his clothing raised his hands saying he was not holding a knife.
The court fixed the next hearings for July 27 during which more witnesses would be called to testify.
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