Jury retires in Las Vegas assassin case

The jury in the trial of a Clare woman and a former Las Vegas poker dealer accused of conspiring to kill her partner and his two sons, has been sent to a hotel for a second night.

The jury of eight men and four women have been deliberating since Monday afternoon.

Ms Sharon Collins (aged 45), with an address at Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road and Mr Essam Eid (52), an Egyptian man with a Las Vegas address Ennis have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard between August 1 2006 and September 26 2006. Ms Collins also denies hiring Mr Eid to kill the three men.

Mr Eid denies demanding €100,000 from Mr 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.

This morning the jury asked to see the video of Ms Collins’ interviews with gardaí and test results from the UK laboratory which tested a contact lens case found in Mr Eid’s cell in Limerick Prison. The jury heard during the trial that the case tested positive for the deadly toxin Ricin.

They also asked to see the Advent computer stolen from the offices of Downes & Howard, which had been found hidden in bushes at the Two Mile Inn in Limerick where Mr Eid had stayed with his wife, Teresa Engle.

They also asked to see photographs of Mr Eid’s Las Vegas home and a letter sent to the DPP by Mr PJ Howard. Mr Justice Roderick Murphy refused them these two pieces of evidence as they had never been formally produced during the trial.

Shortly before 4 p.m the jury asked to see documents relating to a Pay Pal account opened in the name of Mr Eid’s other wife, Lisa Eid which had been used to purchase castor beans and a castor bean plant. Castor beans are a fundamental constituent of Ricin.

The jury also asked to see a recipe for Ricin which FBI agents had found on a computer in Mr Eid’s house. Mr Justice Murphy informed them that these two documents did not exist as evidence in the case.

At around .It is the prosecution’s case that Ms Collins paid Mr Eid €15,000 to kill Mr Howard and his sons Robert and Niall. They say she contacted the site Hitman.us using the email address [e-mail] and that she entered into a correspondence with Mr Eid, who was allegedly using the pseudonym Tony Luciano with the email address [e-mail].

Ms Collins’ defence team say that she sent the €15,000 in answer to a blackmail demand. She maintains that she was blackmailed over sexual allegations she had made against Mr Howard in an email to her writing mentor Maria Marconi. The prosecution say Ms Marconi does not exist.

Mr Eid’s defence team say that he was wrongly identified by Robert Howard as the man who demanded €100,000 to cancel a contract against himself, his brother and his father.

They also say that the plan Mr Eid and one of his two wives, Teresa Engle, were arrested for, was merely an attempt to extort money from the Howards and was never a plot to kill.

The jury will resume their deliberations tomorrow morning