High school student pleads guilty to killing fellow teen

Defendant admits charges as part of plea bargain agreed with state prosecutors.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Justice gavel court law book judge 311 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Justice gavel court law book judge 311
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
A 16-year-old high-school student charged with fatally stabbing Beersheba teenager Philip Geller pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in the Beersheba District Court on Monday.
The defendant, who cannot be named because he is a minor, admitted the charges as part of a plea bargain agreed with state prosecutors.
As the defendant is a minor the plea bargain does not include any deal regarding punishment. Instead, that will be determined by the court in the light of a probation service report, the Southern District Attorney’s Office said on Monday.
The defendant was arrested after fatally stabbing Geller, 15, with a 20-cm.
kitchen knife during a fight on June 3 last year. After the stabbing, the Beersheba police confirmed that the teenagers had been drinking alcohol, which they said played a role in the incident.
The Southern District Attorney’s Office originally considered pressing murder charges against the 16-year-old, but filed a manslaughter charge after deciding there was no unequivocal evidence that Geller’s killing was premeditated.
According to the indictment, Geller was at a party at the defendant’s home when the two started a fist fight. The fight broke up and the defendant went home, but Geller and several other youths soon returned to the yard outside the defendant’s house.
The defendant threatened to stab Geller with a knife if he did not move from the yard, the indictment charged.
Geller told defendant to put the knife down “if he were a man” and asked to continue fighting without weapons.
However, some moments later Geller threw a rock at the defendant’s head, causing injury, according to the indictment.
The defendant then stabbed Geller in the groin with such force that the knife’s handle broke off.
The defendant fled the scene, while Geller was rushed to the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba where he underwent emergency surgery, but the doctors were unable save his life.