Progress made in unsolved murder case

Tel Aviv District Attorney files indictment against Amit Tawil over seven-year-old unsolved murder case.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Police generic in english crime scene 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar)
Police generic in english crime scene 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar)
Possibly on the road to bringing the perpetrator to justice in a seven-year-old unsolved murder, the Tel Aviv District Attorney on Thursday filed an indictment with the Tel Aviv District Court against Amit Tawil.
Tawil, 32 and a resident of Givat Shmuel, is accused of murdering Shlomi Noy seven years ago, but was never suspected by police until a recent breakthrough in the case led the police to arrest him.
Noy was 17 when he was murdered.
The indictment charges Tawil with murder and obstruction of justice, for various activities it says he largely undertook to successfully cover his tracks, at least until now.
According to the indictment, the murder initially arose out of a dispute between Tawil and Noy in 2004.
In an earlier altercation, Noy even stabbed Tawil, said the indictment.
In 2005, Tawil saw Noy on Jabotinsky Street in Ramat Gan while driving there in a car with four others, the indictment alleged.
Tawil told the driver to stop, got out of the car with a crowbar and dealt Noy four to five severe blows to the head, according to the indictment.
The indictment said that Noy fell to the ground and lost consciousness while Tawil continued to hit him all over his body.
Noy’s skull was cracked and he died in the hospital five days later.
After the assault, according to the indictment, Tawil got back in the car and told the driver to drive away quickly and that Noy’s body was “convulsing.”
After the incident, the indictment said, Tawil told the owner of the car to hide it in case it had been photographed or could in any way lead the police back to him.
Tawil also left his house and went into hiding for several days, said the indictment.
The murder investigation continued to some extent throughout the seven years, but only recently was there an unspecified breakthrough in the case leading to Tawil.
The state requested to remand Tawil to police custody until the end of the proceedings, both on the grounds that the alleged crime shows him to be dangerous and due to his past alleged efforts and success in obstructing the investigation.