Almost two weeks after father-of-two Gabi Vichman was stabbed to death outside
his home in Beersheba, the Southern District Attorney’s Office on Thursday
charged a man with his murder.
Idan Ohion, 19, who was arrested after the
incident alongside eight others, was also charged with carrying an illegal
knife, obstruction of justice and suborning an investigation.
On the
night of the stabbing, the indictment said, Ohion and a group of his friends had
gathered in a park close to Vichman’s apartment.
With Ohion were his
girlfriend - a minor identified only as M.H. – and Chen Harel, Lial Peretz and
Or Mesika, the indictment alleges.
Ohion carried a knife with him, the
indictment said.
According to the indictment, Ohion and his friends made
a great deal of noise that disturbed the neighbors, and caused Vichman’s small
daughter to wake repeatedly, although each time Vichman tried to help the child
get back to sleep.
At one point, Vichman’s partner, Michal, went out onto
the family’s balcony overlooking the park and shouted at Ohion to keep the noise
down – but when youths took no notice, the indictment said, Michal called the
police.
Later that night, Vichman went out onto his balcony and asked
Ohion and his friends to be quiet.
According to the indictment, Vichman
told the youths that while there was no problem with them being in the park,
they should be quieter because there were people living nearby.
However,
the indictment said, Ohion’s response was to curse Vichman, calling him a “son
of a whore.”
After that, Michal called the police again, who told her
they had already sent a patrol car to the scene.
Meanwhile, Ohion and his
friends continued to make a large amount of noise, and at one point Ohion spoke
loudly on his cellphone with someone, cursing that person and telling him to
come meet him at the park, the indictment alleges.
A short while later,
Vichman went back onto the balcony and told Ohion and his friends he was coming
down. Michal told the youths that she had called the police, the indictment
said.
Allegedly, Ohion sat on a park bench, and cursed and shouted at
Michal and Vichman.
Ohion said the police could “suck” him, and that
Vichman could come down to the bench and do the same, the indictment
charges.
“Let’s see you come down here,” Ohion allegedly said, continuing
to shout obscenities referring to Vichman’s mother.
At around 2:15 a.m.,
Vichman left his apartment, jumped over the fence separating his apartment block
from the park and went over to Ohion and his friends.
Michal, fearing
what would happen to her partner if he approached the youths, shouted from the
balcony for him to come back to the apartment.
At that point, Ohion
jumped up from the bench he was sitting on and began to walk towards Vichman,
the indictment said, while his girlfriend M.H. told him to “drop it” and
leave.
However, when Ohion reached Vichman, Vichman head butted him,
hitting his lips, the indictment said.
Allegedly, the blow pushed Ohion
back slightly, but the youth remained on his feet and moved towards Vichman,
holding his knife.
Ohion plunged the knife deep into Vichman’s chest,
then made a cutting movement from left to right before pulling the knife out of
Vichman's body, the indictment alleges.
The indictment said that Vichman
collapsed, blood pumping from his chest, as Michal watched from the
balcony.
Michal began screaming for help, but Ohion and his friends
allegedly fled the scene leaving Vichman wounded on the ground.
As he
ran, Ohion threw the knife into a garbage can in an attempt to conceal evidence,
the indictment said.
Paramedics tried to resuscitate Vichman, but he died
at the scene.
The indictment said the stab wound in Vichman’s left chest
was around 6-cm. deep and over 11-cm. wide, and that it seriously damaged his
heart. He also had a stab wound on his left arm.
A murder charge requires
that a killing was premeditated, and the indictment alleges that Ohion
deliberately killed Vichman in cold blood with no provocation, in circumstances
in which he could think clearly and understand the consequences of his
actions.
Ohion did so, the indictment charges, after he had prepared
himself to kill Vichman and prepared the means to kill him.
As Vichman
died, Ohion and his friends ran to Ohion’s house and from there to the home of
Ohion’s girlfriend where they stayed until the morning, the indictment
said.
Ohion allegedly told his girlfriend that if the police should
question her, she should lie to them and say he was with her at her home all the
previous evening.
Later that day, Ohion told his girlfriend that she
should “watch her mouth” because she was “blabbing” too much, the indictment
charges.
With these actions, the indictment said, Ohion attempted to make
his girlfriend give false information to police during an
investigation.
Together with the indictment, the district attorney also
filed a request to remand Ohion in custody throughout the legal proceedings
against him.