Last update - 00:00 09/11/2006
17-year-old boy convicted of 2005 murder of Rehovot teen
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
Tel Aviv District Court convicted a 17-year-old boy on Thursday of the 2005 murder of 15-year-old Rehovot resident Ma'ayan Sapir.
The boy was also convicted of raping and sodomizing the victim.
On the evening of May 28, 2005, 15-year-old Ma'ayan Sapir left her home and set off in the direction of the city mall just a few hundred meters away.
As Sapir was walking to the mall, she was met by a then 16-year-old youth who lured her into the grounds of a nearby abandoned school. In a dark corner under a large tree, the boy raped Sapir and strangled her to death.
The youth was arrested and later confessed to the murder.
The boy's defense attorney Avi Cohen maintained his client was under the influence of both alcohol and contact cement fumes on the night he killed Sapir. Cohen claimed his client was thus not responsible for his actions.
The boy did not tell investigators why he murdered Sapir. Police said he appeared confused and only provided them with scattered bits of information.
The boy, a son of an immigrant family now living in Rehovot, was at the time a ward of a special center for criminal youth located in the center of the country. The murder took place while he was on a weekend leave from the facility.
Police said that despite his young age, the suspect is a "veteran criminal" who has accumulated a multitude of drug, violence and property-related charges.
Sapir was an outstanding student, active on the student council and in volunteer activities.