An illegal immigrant who murdered a man in the UK three years after serving a sentence in Romania for a near identical killing has been jailed for at least 27 years.
Eugeniu Neamtu, 59, known as Jimmy, was found guilty and jailed in his home country in May 2007 of murdering his housemate by stabbing him in the chest in a drunken row over money.
He was freed in 2023 and moved to Walthamstow, east London, where he knifed flatmate Gheorghe Trica, 63, on February 20 in what a prosecutor said were ‘strikingly similar’ circumstances.
Jurors at the Old Bailey were told there had been an argument between Neamtu and Mr Trica.
Both had shouted insults in Romanian and Mr Trica was heard to say: ‘Give me back those £5.’
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At one point a bystander exclaimed: ‘Oh my God, he has cut Trica,’ and the victim was found in a pool of blood.
Mr Trica collapsed on the communal balcony outside the front door of the flat and died at the scene, despite efforts of police and medics.
In a call translated by a Romanian-speaking interpreter, Neamtu told a 999 operator: ‘There was an incident here and a person is injured. There was an altercation, a man was cut, and I am the perpetrator.’
Following his arrest, Neamtu claimed in prepared statements that Mr Trica had threatened to kill him, pushed him down the stairs and made throat-slitting gestures.
He said he picked up the knife from the kitchen to ‘scare’ Mr Trica and stabbed him in the chest to protect himself.
But prosecutor Philip Evans KC told jurors Neamtu had stabbed someone before and tried to cast the blame on that victim.
That previous conviction in May 2007 related to an incident in August the year before, at the home of Adrian Vas, where he was living.
Mr Evans said the housemates had been drinking plum brandy and rowed over rent and work that the defendant had agreed to carry out at the property.
During the confrontation, the defendant took up a knife from the hallway and stabbed Mr Vas several times in the chest, jurors were told.
Mr Evans said: ‘The prosecution in this case relies on this previous conviction because of the striking similarities between the circumstances of that offence and the allegation you are concerned with in this trial.
‘In both cases the defendant was involved in a drunken argument with an associate over money. In both cases he took up a knife from within the home.
‘In both cases he stabbed the other man in the chest. In both cases he later claimed that he acted in self‑defence.’
The jury deliberated for three hours to find him guilty of murder.
Judge Marks told Neamtu: ‘The fact that you killed another man within two or three years from your release from prison underlines in my mind how dangerous you are.’
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