Youth who killed sister to be sentenced on July 19

Elias Harpas, the 24-year-old Larnaca man convicted of manslaughter late last month in the killing of his 21-year-old sister, will hear his sentence on July 19.

The defendant appeared in court on Thursday where his lawyer argued in mitigation, the Cyprus News Agency reported. The court will hand down its sentence on July 19.

The case stems from May 5, 2020 when the defendant’s army issued G3 rifle went off in the house, the round hitting his sister, Maria, in the head.

The defendant claimed that he had been cleaning his rifle, in the family’s home in the village of Klavdia, and it went off by accident.

In the lead up to the incident however, a series of other events took place which muddied the waters.

Notably, the drama unfolded on the day of Maria’s birthday. She was two months pregnant and her fiancé had just proposed.

Investigators later discovered that the front brake lines on the sister’s car had been severed using a cutter.

The suspect reportedly admitted to cutting the brake lines, claiming he did so after a fight with his sister during which she had let the air out of the tyres of his car.

Harpas was charged with manslaughter, the theft of munitions from the National Guard, and malicious damage relating to tampering with the brakes.

The maximum sentence for manslaughter in this case is life in jail.

Murder entails premeditation and proving that would have been next to impossible.

The court said the defendant had been hitting the rifle’s butt on the floor, supposedly to clear a jam, but in reality, all he wanted to do was to lock and load the weapon so that it could fire.

The defendant could have turned the rifle anywhere else, where there was no one, but he opted to turn it towards his sister, the court said.

According to the decision, the rifle went off as soon as his mother left the living room and went to the kitchen. When the shot was fired, the weapon’s muzzle was around 1.50 metres from his sister, whom he could see and knew she was sitting at the particular spot on the sofa.