Murder Suspect Convicted of Kibbutz Horse Theft Amid Police Flaws

Doron Weitzman, a 54-year-old man who was charged just weeks ago with the murder of Caucasus mafia boss Yanis Yushbayev, was convicted last week in an additional case involving burglary and theft. Weitzman was convicted of breaking into a stable at kibbutz Moran, from where he and an accomplice stole a horse valued at 15,000 shekels and headgear worth an additional 1,000 shekels. According to the amended indictment, Weitzman and his partner, Shai Shamila, entered the kibbutz through the main gate, cut the stable fence, and fled with the horse into agricultural fields.

The prosecution based its case on surveillance camera footage, in which three police officers identified Weitzman entering through the gate and cutting the fence, as well as on cellular location data indicating suspicious call disconnections between the two on the day of the theft. Shamila, the accomplice, confessed in a plea bargain and was sentenced to ten months in prison, but when testifying in Weitzman's trial, he attempted to take full blame and distance Weitzman from the scene. The judge rejected his version, ruling that it was a biased testimony aimed at preventing incrimination.

Police Flaws and Circumstantial Conviction

During the trial, Weitzman's public defender, attorney Avraham Sofer, pointed out a series of significant investigative flaws in the case. The most prominent failure involved a cigarette butt found outside the kibbutz fence. Although preliminary testing indicated a possible match to Weitzman, the police never conducted the required follow-up testing to verify the DNA, causing the evidence to lose its weight. In addition, the police failed to document in writing the steps taken to locate the horse in Weitzman's yard, after Shamila claimed during interrogation that it was hidden there.

Despite the criticism leveled by Judge Hochman Amoyal at the police's investigative failures, she ruled that the circumstantial evidence interlocks and proves Weitzman's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge rejected Weitzman's claim that he was only wandering the area to check on his cows, noting in the verdict that his testimony was evasive and riddled with lies.

This conviction adds to the severe indictment recently filed against him in the Haifa District Court for the murder of the 41-year-old Yushbayev at the Agenda restaurant near Caesarea. According to the indictment, Weitzman waited for Yushbayev at the restaurant, followed him as he left, and fired a single bullet into his head from close range before fleeing in a stolen vehicle with fake license plates.

Unlike the kibbutz theft case, cigarette butts played a decisive and successful role in the murder investigation. Police investigators successfully extracted forensic evidence and DNA samples from cigarette butts and cups left at the restaurant. These findings, alongside surveillance cameras, led to his rapid identification and arrest two days later by Yamam fighters while hiding in a residential building's storage room in Hadera.