Murder accused 'waiting for gardaí while attacked'

A man accused of fatally stabbing another man was attacked in his own house while waiting for gardaí to arrive, the Central Criminal Court heard in video evidence today.

Valerij Makarov (aged 25), also known as 'Andris Simonis', Earlsfort Drive, Lucan, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Tomas Lukosevicious (aged 30) on May 11, 2003, in Lucan.

The accused has also pleaded not guilty to causing intentional or reckless harm to Mr Aldevinias Gudavicious (aged 34) and to threatening to harm Jonas Bernotas (aged 21) on the same date in Lucan.

The jury of five men and seven women viewed videotape evidence of an interview with the accused, conducted by Garda Damien Gannon at Ronanstown Garda Station on the morning of May 12, 2003.

Speaking in the video, the accused told how he, his wife and two children spent the early afternoon on the day of the incident at the zoo and later went to a friend's house in Palmerstown.

"At five o'clock I started receiving phone calls on my mobile. There was about five phone calls. All of them were from Lithuanian men," Makarov said.

When asked what the men wanted, the accused replied: "Some of them said: 'We're looking for money'. Some of them said: 'We need to talk to you. We are standing in front of your house'."

He told how in one of the calls the caller pretended to be his friend to coax him back home, and Makarov said that he would not be returning home.

"They said: 'You know that red Golf parked in front of your house? The windows are smashed. The same will happen to your car as well'," he said on the video. "I thought they were just bluffing," he added.

The family returned to their home to feed the children and get them ready for bed, the court heard.

"We got home and found the front lamps of the Golf broken. The front window had been smashed with a cement block," he said. The smashed car belonged to Makarov's sister-in-law, whom the couple rang to come home immediately.

"We all had a shock," he said. "If they can come in the middle of the day and break our lights, they could come in and kill us at night."

Makarov sent his wife to a friend's house. "I decided it would be safer for her to get out," he said.

The court heard that Makarov made three phone calls to the gardaí and was told that an officer would come to his house.

"I was just in the kitchen waiting for the gardaí," Makarov said. "I saw a shadow on the outside of the door and decided it could be a garda," he added.

"So I stood up and, in a second, the door was kicked in. The person who came through the door was running towards me," he said. "I was in shock, because I had expected the police, a garda man, and then it happened like that."

Makarov described the man as short and fat. "I could see in his face that he was on drugs or drink.

"His face was not normal and when he started talking to me I got the smell of alcohol," he said.

The man then threatened the accused, saying: "I'll beat you up. Where's the money?" according to Makarov.

The court heard that the man pushed the accused into a corner of the kitchen, knocked him over and attempted to punch Makarov. "At that moment, when I kicked him off, I jumped up and opened a drawer and grabbed a knife," he said.

Makarov demonstrated in the video how he was defending his face with one hand from the man's punches, while making movements with the knife towards the man.

"I didn't see him properly and I didn't look where I hit him. I tried to just pinch him with the knife so he'd run off," Makarov said.

Makarov described the knife as "going into empty" as he was trying to reach his attacker.

"So he fell down and I came over him with the knife. He was still kicking and punching me with the hands," he said.

Makarov asked the man if he still wanted the money. "He said: 'No, no, I don't want it'," said the accused.

"As I was over him I heard another kick at the door," he said on the tape.

The court has heard that Mr Lukosevicious bled to death from nine stab wounds.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Barry White.