The Lod District Court today (Thursday) sentenced Yitzhak Shefek to 29 years in prison, who was convicted of the murder of his late estranged wife Aliza. In addition, the court imposed a six-month suspended sentence for convicting him of assaulting his wife in 2016. The indictment was converted from murder in aggravated circumstances to murder at the most basic level. Shefek will also pay compensation to his children in the amount of NIS 258,000 to be divided equally between the three children of the deceased and the defendant.
During the marriage, difficulties were discovered between the couple. Beginning in 2016, or thereabouts, the deceased expressed her desire to divorce the defendant, and on the other hand he sought to preserve the married life. In early May 2018, the deceased left home, and moved in with her home in another apartment. Two and a half years ago, the couple signed a divorce agreement, and a date was set for a hearing in the rabbinical court for the purpose of granting the divorce.
In the months leading up to the hearing in the rabbinical court, the defendant expressed his desire for peace at home and tried to persuade the deceased to return to his lap, but to no avail. The couple traveled together with N. (who was raised by the couple as part of a foster family) to a meeting in Tel Aviv. On their way back, an argument developed between them, during which the defendant expressed his anger at the rest on the pretext that she was not devoting enough time to N. Arriving near the rest apartment, the defendant shouted at her from the vehicle. That evening and the next morning, the couple continued to argue through an exchange of text messages.
Later, the defendant arrived at the deceased’s apartment, with documents related to N. He entered the apartment, and during his stay in it, stabbed the deceased with a sharp meat knife, fifteen stabs in the upper body, with the intention of causing her death. Due to the multiple stab wounds she suffered massive and rapid bleeding, which caused sub-volume shock and resulted in her death.
Realizing that she was no longer alive, he left her apartment, locked the door with the keys of the deceased and threw them in a nearby hiding place. Defendant returned home and changed his shirt. Later, he drove in the direction of Moshav Avihail, where he hid from the law enforcement authorities until he was located and arrested on October 2018.
Judges noted, among other things, that “after hearing some of the prosecution witnesses, a plea deal was presented to the court, according to which the indictment was amended and the murder offense was converted to the basic murder offense. It was agreed between the parties that without the amendment, the defendant would have been convicted of premeditated murder. “Exacerbated circumstances existed,” the law applies to the defendant, and he was convicted of the basic murder offense, with his mental element being intent. “
They further said: “In the act the defendant robbed his family of a mother, daughter of her parents and sister, and sowed in the family destruction, loss and deep mourning, which caused severe upheaval to each family member and the family as a whole. As stated in paragraph 15 above. The mother’s condition deteriorated and she died, and a few months later the father’s health deteriorated, linking the grief and loss to his poor condition.
“The defendant also caused enormous damage to his children, who also went through the murder experienced a complex childhood in the shadow of the difficult atmosphere that prevailed at home around the defendant’s behavior towards them and towards the deceased.