SHARON COLLINS’s conviction for conspiracy to murder her wealthy partner and his two sons by hiring an online hitman should be overturned, a court heard yesterday.
The Court of Criminal Appeal heard the charge against the mother-of-two cannot be upheld as her co-accused was acquitted.
However, Collins, who went by the name of "Lying Eyes" to find a hitman on the internet, is trying to overturn another conviction for soliciting a man to kill her partner, PJ Howard, and his two sons, Robert and Niall Howard.
She was jailed for six years on each count in November 2008 for plotting their murder.
Her co-accused, Egyptian-born Las Vegas poker dealer, Essam Eid, will also appeal against a six-year sentence for extortion and handling stolen property.
Tom O’Connell, senior counsel for the state, said as two people had to be guilty for a conspiracy charge, the state cannot uphold Collins’s conviction.
"Logically it is simply unsustainable," he said.
Collins, aged 46-year-old, looked immaculate as she entered the courtroom in a smart black trouser suit and white shirt.
Her son, Gary, sat by her side until the case started.
Brendan Grehan, senior counsel for Collins, told the court the charges of soliciting referred to a date on or about August 15, 2006, when it is alleged Collins and Eid agreed a hit contract and when she sent €15,000 to him by Fed Ex.
He said the appeal would focus on the trial judge’s charge to the jury, the evidence of Teresa Engle, Eid’s partner who was a convicted felon awaiting sentence in the US, the evidence of an alibi witness and the treatment of evidence relating to the poison ricin.
Mr Grehan said the verdict for soliciting was tainted by the trial judge’s failure to instruct the jury on the second charge.
He called for the conviction to be overturned as he claimed neither the prosecution or trial judge dealt with the soliciting charge separately.
"They were not treated as separate offences and no attempt was made by the prosecution or trial judge to isolate the evidence," he said.
After a seven-week trial in the summer of 2008, Collins was convicted of creating an internet alias who made contact with Tony Luciano, otherwise known as Essam Eid, through the Hitmanforhire.com website.
The trial heard the pair hatched a plan and Eid and Engle flew to Ireland to kill PJ Howard and his two sons for $90,000 (€65,827).
But the scheme backfired and the couple were arrested when Eid arrived in the south-west of the country and tried to blackmail Robert Howard to call off the hit.
Collins had already obtained a fake marriage certificate and got a passport in the name of Sharon Howard to claim her partner’s business and inheritance.
Even after she was found guilty, Mr Howard, 60, told the court that Collins, of Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, Co Clare, was a loving woman and appealed to the judge to spare her jail.
But Collins’s defence team argued it had inadequate time to prepare for the state’s principal witness to take the stand.
Junior counsel Michael Bowman said just 11 days notice was given that Engle was given bail to fly to Ireland and "billed as the headline act" for prosecutors. "In my submission, she was a bare-faced liar," he said.
The appeal continues.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, March 12, 2010
