Witness says he met shooting victim on morning of murder

A witness giving evidence in the trial of a Dublin man accused of shooting a man at close range in the back of the head has told a Central Criminal Court jury that he met the accused on the morning of the murder.

Eoin Sheridan, who was called by the defence, was giving evidence in the trial of Stephen Kelly (aged 22) from Balcurris Road in Ballymun who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 28-year-old Ian McConnell.

Mr McConnell was gunned down on the first floor landing of a block of flats at Shangan Road in north Dublin in the early hours of December 11, 2005.

Mr Sheridan, a student, said he had met the accused on the morning of the murder after he left the Towers pub in Ballymun at around 3.30am.

He said he had seen Mr Kelly arguing with his ex-girlfriend Rhonda Murray beside the railings of the Virgin Mary school. He said a woman called Anne Marie, who he met at the pub that night, was calling Rhonda to tell her to go back to hers, but Rhonda had wanted to talk things over with Mr Kelly.

He said the four of them then walked towards Coultry where the accused and Rhonda went to the first block of flats to talk things out, whilst he and Anne Marie went to the next block where friends of Mr Kelly’s were having a few drinks and taking drugs.

He said he left at about 5.30am and walked up to the next block where he met Rhonda and Mr Kelly about half way. He then went with Rhonda and Anne Marie to Anne Marie’s house at around 5.45am.

Prosecuting counsel Mr Michael O’Higgins SC put it to the witness that Anne Marie Doyle said in her garda statement that she had taken Rhonda from the railings at the school back to her flat at around 4am.

The witness replied: “I don’t think so.” However, he agreed he did not have a watch with him and that his mobile phone had run out of battery.

He denied having had any discussion with the accused’s brother John Kelly about times and said he had never learned the time of Mr McConnell’s death.

He said John Kelly had telephoned him at the weekend, after he had been contacted by a solicitor for the accused, and had said: “It won’t affect you. Just say what you seen and what happened and that’ll be it.”

Anne Marie Doyle, who was called as a prosecution witness, said she had returned to her flat just after 4am on the morning of the murder and thought the previous witness had been with her. She said she was there for a while before Rhonda Murray’s partner telephoned and she told him she would bring her home.

On the way back from dropping Rhonda Murray home, she said she thought she was still with Mr Sheridan. She said she had met the deceased’s brother Nicky McConnell in the next lift shaft to her block and she thought Ian McConnell had been there as well “because I could see him at the side of me”.

Asked by Ms Ring why she had made no mention of this meeting in her original statement to gardaí on December 19, 2005, she said: “I don’t know why I didn’t mention it.”

She said the gardaí “just asked me did I see Stephen Kelly and that was it”. She said she had remembered this meeting “a few days ago”. Asked if there were many things today that she still could not remember, she replied: “I’m sorry but I had a few drinks. I did say at the time I didn’t think I'd be useful, because I was drinking.”

In earlier evidence, the accused’s older brother John Kelly, who works laying concrete floors, said he had called up to his sister Karen’s house on the afternoon of Sunday December 11 to tell his brother the gardaí were looking for him.

He said he then picked his brother up at around 3.30pm to take him down to the station.

Asked whether he had seen something in Karen’s house in Ballymun, he said: “Even looking at Stephen you’d know he was on drugs because he was after being out all the night. He said I’ll go down and sit the section out. He showed me a bag of cocaine and tablets.”

He said his brother had gone into the toilet and he didn’t see what he did after that. He then took him to Santry garda station where Mr Kelly was arrested.

The trial has reached its concluding stages and both sides are expected to give speeches tomorrow before the jury is charged by Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins.