Lithuanian found guilty of manslaughter

A Lithuanian man on trial for fatally stabbing a man was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court today.

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

The accused had also pleaded not guilty to causing intentional or reckless serious 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 delivered a majority verdict of 11 to 1 after deliberating for a total of nine hours and 28 minutes over two days.

Yesterday, the accused was found guilty of causing harm, a charge lessened from causing serious harm. Makarov was also found not guilty of threatening to harm.

Mr Justice Barry White remanded Makarov on bail until sentencing on January 11, 2005.

The court has heard that on May 11, 2003, Makarov spent the day at the zoo with his family and later went to a friend's house, where he began to receive a series of threatening phone calls on his mobile.

When Makarov returned to his home in Lucan, a car in his driveway, belonging to his sister-in-law, had a cement block smashed through the windscreen and lights smashed.

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

Makarov made three phone calls to local gardaí to report the incident, waiting in his home for them to arrive. His wife left the house, looking for alternative accommodation for the family for the night.

Makarov's two young children and sister-in-law were in the home at the time of the incident.

The jury heard that around 10pm that night, the front door of the accused was kicked in and a man confronted Makarov in his kitchen, threatening him.

Makarov told the court he was cornered in the kitchen and reached for a knife out of a drawer "just to pinch him so he would feel pain and go away".

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

Mr Bernotas and the dead man, Lukosevicious, were outside the house and saw some of the incident through the window, when they also kicked in the door.

An altercation ensued in the hallway, where Makarov was still holding the kitchen knife. He had said he was trying to get the men away from his sister-in-law and young child.

The court heard how one of the men slipped outside the house and the other ran off, and was chased by Makarov to a neighbour's front gate. "I told him I would kill him if he came back to my house," Makarov had said in a garda interview viewed by the jury.

State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the court that the deceased bled to death from nine stab wounds, one of which had gone "in through the ribcage, across the lung and in and out of the heart".

She said the victim had received four stab wounds to the chest, three to his arms and two to his legs.

The severity of the injuries indicated that Mr Lukosevicious had collapsed "fairly quickly".

Mr Gudavicious, who showed the scars of his stab wounds to the court, had received eight "lacerations". There was no evidence that his injuries caused a substantial risk of death.

In a statement of a garda interview with the accused, read to the jury, Makarov was asked: "In view of the fact that we have one person dead and one person seriously injured, do you have any remorse?"

"Of course I have remorse," Makarov replied. "These people have parents. They were not firemen or policemen, they did not die in the line of duty. It hurts me to find out that they came to another country to die," he added.