The Haifa District Court on Sunday sentenced Edward Kachura to seven years in prison for causing the death by negligence of 17-year-old Lital Yael Melnik, who was buried alive at a construction site in Kiryat Motzkin in October 2021.
The court also ordered Kachura, 53, to pay 140,000 shekels (about $37,000) in compensation to Melnik’s family and imposed a one-year suspended sentence.
Kachura, a nurse at the Maale Carmel Psychiatric Hospital near Haifa, was acquitted earlier this year of aggravated murder, a ruling that drew widespread public criticism and anger from the victim’s family. The judges found that prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he intentionally killed the teenager.
However, the court convicted Kachura of negligent manslaughter, unlawful sexual relations by consent and violating a court order barring him from contact with Melnik.
Melnik, a resident of Or Akiva, met Kachura during her hospitalization at the psychiatric facility. Despite a restraining order prohibiting contact between them, the two maintained a relationship.
According to the indictment, on Oct. 1, 2021, Melnik left a residential program for the weekend and went to Kachura’s home in Kiryat Motzkin instead of returning to her grandmother’s house. That night, police arrived at the apartment after she was reported missing, but Kachura did not open the door. The two later left the home and wandered the Krayot area overnight.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 2, they went to a construction site in Kiryat Motzkin, where Melnik entered a pit dug in a mound of sand as part of what Kachura described as a “cleansing ritual.” Prosecutors said she was buried under sand and gravel and died from suffocation after inhaling debris that blocked her airways.
Kachura consistently denied intending to harm her, saying throughout the investigation and trial that he was helping Melnik carry out a spiritual exercise she had requested and that he believed she would be able to breathe through a pipe placed in the sand.
The judges cited evidentiary difficulties and accepted a medical opinion suggesting Melnik may have lost consciousness due to a buildup of carbon dioxide and then inhaled sand and gravel, leading to her death. Still, the court stressed that Kachura bore criminal responsibility for enabling the fatal sequence of events.
“There is nothing in the acquittal on the murder charge that diminishes the gravity of the defendant’s conduct or absolves him of responsibility,” the court wrote, ruling that his actions and omissions made the incident possible.
Melnik’s body was discovered later that morning at the construction site. A police officer who was first to arrive at the scene testified during the trial that the experience caused severe psychological trauma and led her to leave the police force.
The case, which unfolded over more than three years, shocked Israel and drew nationwide attention, particularly after the acquittal on the murder charge. Members of Melnik’s family attended the sentencing hearing in Haifa on Sunday.