Man gets life for high-profile Beersheba killing

A Beersheba man accused of stabbing a young father to death after a confrontation over late-night noise-making two years ago was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison Sunday.

A brief scuffle broke out in the Beersheba courtroom after the verdict was announced, with relatives of the 20-year-old killer, Eden Ohayon, yelling at and cursing the widow of Gadi Vichman.

Vichman, 35, was stabbed to death by Ohayon, then 18, in a park outside the Vichmans’ Beersheba home in May 2012.

Vichman’s wife Michal said he had confronted Ohayon and his friends for making too much noise late at night, disturbing their young daughter. He was stabbed with a knife and left to die.

However, Ohayon maintained that he had killed Vichman in self-defense after being headbutted.

The judges on the panel said that the fact that Ohayon was holding a knife showed that he intended to harm, while Vichman did not confront Ohayon in order to start a physical fight and even called the police before he went outside to confront Ohayon and his friends.

“The deceased went in the direction of the accused, but did not manage to make it very far,” Judge Revital Katz said. “It can be assumed that the knife was already in the accused’s hand and came out before the headbutt.”

Michal Vichman said she was happy with the verdict, though worried for herself and her daughter after relatives of Ohayon yelled at her, according to Ynet news.

At the time, the murder was seen as one of a string of deadly fights involving Israeli teens.