One moment he was partying, the next he was in jail charged with murder

LIFE was good for William Monaghan in late 2002.

Life changed utterly in just a few minutes late one night on October 2002.

Sitting in the kitchen of his mother's home in Oldcastle, Co Meath, Monaghan is contemplating his future, has found religion and no longer drinks or smokes. He is happy to be back home and not facing the prospect of spending more than 25 years in a California state penitentiary.

But there is not a day, Mr Monaghan says, when he does not think about the man he killed that night.

On October 26, 2002 Monaghan and five friends, mostly Irish, went out to celebrate his 27th birthday and decided to board the Royal Prince yacht on one of its regular party cruises in San Francisco bay.

He and his mates had a few drinks and laughs. Then he saw Viva Taylor.

Monaghan said: "We made eyes at each other. There was electricity. I went up on deck for a cigarette, she went out for a cigarette. We were talking out on the deck. I asked her was she attached. She said she was going out with someone for five years. I said fair enough and she gave me a hug."

At that instant, her boyfriend Lionel Voillat turned up. He thought it was more than a friendly hug and began shouting at Ms Taylor. She left and Voillat began shouting at Monaghan.

"He swung a punch and I punched him back. I did not want to see him getting into any harm."

But the Swiss national tumbled over the rails and into the water. Monaghan then walked away, a decision he says was made in split-second panic and one that he regrets to this day.

"But I saw someone who witnessed it talking to security and figured that was good enough and that it was taken care of.

"I went downstairs. I thought I would just get away and that he was going to be helped out of the water straight away."

But the minutes went by, word spread that there was a man overboard, the music stopped and a search was started, with the ship circling the area and fishing boats called in.

Back upstairs, a crowd gathered and they knew Monaghan, in shock, with his head in his hands and surrounded by security guards, was involved.

"It was pretty tense. All these guys were shouting 'murderer'. Security had to protect me."

The boat finally docked and Monaghan was immediately arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

After the body was found, Monaghan was charged with first degree murder, bail was set at $5 million one of the largest amounts in the city's history and for the next 18 months, home was a 30-foot by 50-foot dormitory he shared with 27 others.

The first phone call from his elderly mother Lila was heartbreaking. "I did not know what to think. I thought it was going to break my mother's heart thinking 'here's my son in jail charged with murder'. But she was so strong."

Privately, he still feared the trial and a life sentence. "I did not really have much faith in the system. It does not matter about the truth. A murder trial is really only down to how good your attorney is."

He had a good one, a courtroom lawyer, not a deal-maker.

As one family still grieves for the death of a son, another welcomes one home. Monaghan says: "I will not try and forget about this but I will try and move on."