Nadav Nakan, a former kibbutznik who killed a couple in California in 1987, has been sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the Tel Aviv District Court as part of a plea bargain made in the United States.
Nakan’s accomplice, Yair Or, is already serving a life sentence here for the contract killing of Carmen and Jack Hively in California in 1987.
The case was believed to mark the first time Israelis were tried here for crimes committed abroad.
The murder of the Hivelys, who were shot at close range while they were asleep, was commissioned by the couple’s son-in-law, Charles Le Gros, who stood to gain a large inheritance. Le Gros hired Or to do the shooting, and Or brought Nakan into the plan Both men are from Kibbutz Alonim, which is located near Haifa, and were former officers in the Israel Defense Force.
Nakan agreed to serve as a prosecution witness in Le Gros’s trial in the United States in exchange for a prosecution pledge to reduce his charges from murder to manslaughter when he came up for trial in Israel.
Nakan and Or subsequently returned to Israel, where they were detained on a U.S. extradition request. Israel refused the request for the extradition of the two Israelis on the grounds that as Jews they could not be sent abroad to face murder charges. But Israel agreed to try them here.
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