Man found guilty of murder in case of mistaken identity

A 21-year-old Limerick man has been found guilty of murdering a man on his 40th birthday in a case of mistaken identity.

Jonathan Fitzgerald of South Claughan Road, Garryowen shot and killed Noel Crawford on December 18, 2006, as he stood outside his parents’ home in O'Malley Park, Southill.

Fitzgerald had denied the murder during a four-week trial at the Central Criminal Court jury.

It is understood that Fitzgerald had meant to shoot the victim’s brother, Paul Crawford, who had left his brother’s side momentarily to answer his mobile phone.

The trial heard that Fitzgerald’s sister, Jennifer Fitzgerald, had been kidnapped hours before the killing and that the defendant believed that Paul Crawford was involved.

The chief prosecution witness, Laura Kelly, testified via a live television link from Westminster Court in London. She said that the defendant and a man called Michael O’Callaghan came to her home in O’Malley Park shortly after 2am on that date.

She said she heard them planning an attack on a house, that they made a petrol bomb and were wearing bullet-proof vests when they left. She did not approve and had asked them to leave, she said.

She said that she then heard gunshots before both men returned to her house, banging on her door and ‘kind of jumping’, she said.

“Jonathan Fitzgerald said: 'I got him. I got him. I got Paul Crawford',” she testified.

“He said his adrenalin was pumping.”

She said she saw a double-barrelled shot gun on the table before both men washed themselves and Fitzgerald began to burn his clothes. He stopped when O’Callaghan told him that the smoke from the chimney would give them away, she said.

The court heard that Laura Kelly’s windows were shot in about an hour after the killing. Fitzgerald and O’Callaghan then left but returned while Ms Kelly was sleeping and were there when gardaí arrived at 7.50am.

Fitzgerald instructed Ms Kelly and her partner, Jonathon Kiely, to say that they had come after 4am. They were threatened and initially lied.

However Mr Kiely told the truth a month later and Ms Kelly two years later, after she had moved out of Limerick.

Mr Kiely was also called as a witness, but said he could no-longer remember anything due to drug-induced memory loss. However he was treated as a hostile witness, which meant the jury heard the statements he made at the time.

“The prosecution’s case is that it was Jonathan Fitzgerald who fired at Noel Crawford standing at the door,” said Úna Ní Raifeartaigh SC, prosecuting, in her closing speech last week.

The defence, meanwhile, said that Paul Crawford was a hunted man, who was well used to people shooting at him. The defence argued that it was someone else who fired the shot, going so far as naming an alternative killer.

In his charge, Mr Justice Barry White told the jury to forget the question of who the intended victim was.

“Mistaken identity or shooting at one individual, missing and hitting another, does not absolve someone from responsibility,” he said.

He read out the definition of murder, which said a person was guilty if s/he ‘intended to kill, or cause serious injury to, some person, whether the person actually killed or not’.

The jury of five women and seven men reached a majority verdict of 11 to one after deliberating for three hours and 17 minutes. They had been given the option of reaching a majority verdict 15 minutes earlier, after telling the judge they had individually reached their decisions but not unanimously.

Members of the Crawford family wept briefly and quietly when the verdict was delivered. Fitzgerald hugged his mother before returning to prison.

Mr Justice Barry White adjourned imposing the mandatory life sentence until Wednesday when he will also sentence Fitzgerald’s co-accused.

Michael O’Callaghan had pleaded guilty to Mr Crawford’s manslaughter, something the jury was told only after reaching its verdict.