Las Vegas man ‘patsy’ for murder conspiracy

A FORMER Las Vegas poker dealer accused of conspiring with a Clare woman to murder her partner and his two sons is a “patsy” the prosecution is using to secure the conviction of his co-accused, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has heard.

The jury in the trial of Sharon Collins, aged 45, with an address at Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, and Essam Eid, aged 52, an Egyptian man with a Las Vegas address, have heard the closing address of Eid’s counsel David Sutton SC.

Collins & Eid have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard between August 1, 2006, and September 26, 2006.

Collins also denies hiring Eid to kill the men.

Eid denies demanding €100,000 from Robert Howard to cancel the contracts. He also denies breaking into the Howard family business at Westgate Business Park and stealing two computers, some computer cables, a digital clock and a poster of old Irish money, and then handling the stolen items.

Mr Sutton told the jury that Collins is the “great white defendant” for the prosecution while Eid was “the patsy being dragged along in the wake”.

He said the main evidence that the prosecution had that Eid was involved in a murder plot was the finding of an empty contact lens case in his cell in Limerick Prison that had tested positive for the deadly toxin ricin. He told the jury that they were not being told that Eid was actually in possession of ricin powder and had made it in his home in Las Vegas.

“There is no such evidence before you, and the state reporting Eid was making it does not make it evidence.”

Mr Sutton said that much of the prosecution case against Eid was dependent on the evidence given by one of his wives, Teresa Engle. He said Ms Engle had given evidence in court armed with immunity from prosecution from the state and a plea bargain from the United States, and had been a self-serving liar. The prosecution had never attempted to say Eid was the only person who had access to computers seized from his home who had access to the hitman.us website.

Mr Sutton told the jury they should be cautious about the evidence of an accomplice. Even if they believed Eid was correctly identified by Robert and Niall Howard in a Garda line-up they would still have to accept that the plot was one of murder.

“It’s a clownish operation by clowns in the hope of hooking fools.”

Mr Sutton said “This was not Dial M for Murder. It was Dial M for Money.”

He said that the charges Ms Engle had pleaded guilty to in the US were for extortion not for murder. The plan was as “clumsy and foolish with a most asinine plot worthy of the Cohen brothers”.

He urged the jury that despite the “self serving poetry” of the prosecution closing speech they should acquit Eid “with justice and discretion”.

Mr Justice Roderick Murphy has begun summing up the evidence for the jury.

He will conclude on Monday when the jury are expected to retire.