Two life sentences for man convicted of double-slaying

Third victim in Beersheba attack left permanently disabled.

By JOANNA PARASCZCUK
Adam Eital was sentenced to two life sentences and an additional 15 years’ imprisonment on Monday for the murders of two teenagers and for attempting to murder another, who was left permanently disabled by the attack.
The Beersheba District Court also ordered Eital to pay compensation of NIS 200,000 to each of the families of the two murdered men, and an additional NIS 200,000 to the third victim.
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Eital was convicted last week of the murders of 16- year-old Ruslan Koviov and 17-year-old Eitan Aizmiolov, and of the attempted murder and grievous bodily harm of a third unnamed minor, known only as “Alef.”
The murders occurred in February 2007 outside the Bon-Bon kiosk in Beersheba, where the three victims had started a drunken brawl with another group of men.
According to the charge sheet, Alef then took out an knife and threatened a young woman standing nearby and shortly afterwards threatened Eital.
Eital left the scene, but returned later with a handgun.
He fired at Alef and seriously wounded him. Immediately afterwards, Eital shot and killed Koviov and Aizmiolov.
Since the shooting, Alef has been confined to a wheelchair.
Eital has categorically denied the charges against him. He was arrested months after the murders took place and told police and later the court that he had visited the Bon-Bon kiosk earlier on the night of the shootings, but had been at home when the murders took place.
During the trial, it emerged that footage from security cameras at the scene of the crime did not show the person who fired the shots.
Eital was eventually identified as the perpetrator of the shootings by a worker in a nearby restaurant.
Before Eital was sentenced, Alexander Aizmiolov, the father of one of the murdered men, made a statement to the court and said his son’s death has shattered the family.
“There is no more happy family, nothing to expect, no more goals in life,” Aizmiolov said.
In sentencing Eital to two consecutive life sentences for each of the two murders – the maximum penalty for murder – and an additional 15 years for injuring Alef, Judge Ravital Yaffe Katz wrote: “It is hard to imagine any actions worse than those carried out by the defendant. In one stroke, he cut off the lives of two boys just as they were beginning; their deaths have ended not just their lives, but also those of their families. He also inflicted the most severe physical damage on Alef.” Anything less than the maximum sentence, the judge noted, would “not have adequately reflected the severity of [Eital’s] actions, nor the disaster and the crisis left in their wake.”
In passing sentence, the judge also noted that Eital had failed to express remorse for the murders and that he had maintained his innocence throughout the investigation and trial.
Eital’s attorneys have stated they intend to appeal the conviction in the Supreme Court.