Witness breaks down as he recalls moment Waterford teenager stabbed best friend
When asked if he had picked up the golf club for the purpose of attacking someone, Christopher Lee (pictured) replied: "I had just seen my best friend getting stabbed." Photo: Collins Courts
An eye-witness broke down as he told a murder trial of the moment a teenager stabbed his best friend, who had entered the boy’s home in the early hours of the morning.
"Jack turned around to walk out [of the house] towards me. I was shouting at him, he didn't even acknowledge me, he had gone so pale. He went to walk past me as if I wasn't there," Christopher Lee told the trial at the Central Criminal Court on Friday morning.
Mr Lee (29) was giving evidence on Friday in the trial of Dean Kerrie (20), who is charged with murdering 25-year-old Jack Power nearly four years ago.
Mr Kerrie (20) with an address at St Brigid's Square, Portarlington in Co. Laois has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Power at Shanakiel, Dunmore East, Co Waterford on July 26, 2018.
Giving evidence on Thursday afternoon, Mr Lee told prosecution counsel Michael Delaney SC that he saw his friend Jack Power and another named man at the entrance to the Shanakiel estate in the early hours of July 26.
When asked by Mr Delaney if there was any conversation between him and Mr Power, Mr Lee said he remembered "saying about busting up" Dean Kerrie's house but could not remember exactly. The witness said he did not know what had prompted him to say that and could not remember if Jack was saying anything.
Mr Lee said he remembered Mr Power running down towards Mr Kerrie's house and he took after him. "I could hear glass breaking but I couldn't see," he said, adding that he did not have a view of Mr Kerrie's house at that stage.
Continuing his examination-in-chief today, Mr Lee told Mr Delaney that when he got around the corner he saw a window in the Kerrie house had been broken. "I seen Jack go into the garden. I seen Ann Kerrie [the accused's mother] running towards Jack. I remember seeing Dean in the garden. I think Jack ran into the house after Dean," he said.
Mr Lee said he moved closer to the house and could see in through the window. "I seen pushing. I think it was Jack and Dean but I'm not sure. After that I was shouting into Jack to come out," he explained. The witness said he was standing at the front door of the house and Jack came into the hallway.
"There were two people in the hallway, there was a bit of pushing," he added. At this point Mr Lee began to sob on the stand and wiped a few tears from his eye with his hand.
The witness testified that Mr Power was walking towards him and leaving the house when he saw the accused Mr Kerrie coming from the kitchen.
"He [Mr Kerrie] had a long knife in his hand and he shouted at Jack something about the house. Jack turned around and that's when Dean stabbed him with the knife. I knew it was the upper body and he [Jack] had his back to me," said Mr Lee.
When asked how Mr Power had responded, the witness said Jack had turned around to walk towards him.
Mr Lee added: "I was shouting at him [Mr Power]. He didn't even acknowledge me, he had gone so pale. He went to walk past me as if I wasn't there. I was probably standing at the doorstep, Jack was only a few feet away from me".
The witness said he could not remember if Mr Power had collapsed. "I remember Jack being on the ground. I had no phone on me. I knew Jack was hurt and knew he needed help," he said.
Mr Lee said he ran to his father's house in the Shanakiel estate and rang the gardaí and ambulance to tell them that his friend had been stabbed.
The witness picked up a golf club before he left his father's house and used it to break two windows in the Kerrie house. "I broke the window to the right of the front door first and then the middle one," he said.
Mr Lee said he ran back to his father's house again and took another golf club before returning to the Kerrie house and breaking a third window. He said he could not remember if there was anyone with Mr Power at the time.
When asked why he had broken the windows, Mr Lee told Mr Delaney that he did not know and "was in pure shock".
The witness told counsel that he had been out drinking all day and was unsure how much he had consumed.
Under cross-examination, Mr Lee agreed with defence counsel Ciaran O'Loughlin SC that Mr Power was his "best pal" and they knew each other from his school days.
Mr O'Loughlin put it to the witness that he told gardaí in his statement that he remembered Jack saying something about a wing mirror on his car. "I can't remember what was said. I can just remember something was said about the wing mirror on his car," he said.
Mr Lee told the lawyer that he was "very sure" he saw Mr Kerrie running over to Mr Power when his friend ran into the garden and that the accused's mother Ann Kerrie was there too. "I can't remember if Ann Kerrie was lying on the ground but she was in the garden," he said.
He agreed that he thought the accused was shouting about his mother or his mother's house.
"Was that inside the house where Jack Power grabbed Ann Kerrie by the hair and was shoving her around the house and he subsequently attacked Dean and his friend?" asked Mr O'Loughlin. The witness said he could not remember.
He also said he did not remember seeing any blood coming from Jack when he came out of the house holding his chest.
When asked if he had picked up the golf club for the purpose of attacking someone, he replied: "I had just seen my best friend getting stabbed."
Mr O'Loughlin put it to the witness that if he had been in the house would he have thought that "a kind of siege was going on". "If I was in the house I would have known what was happening," he said.
The witness agreed that he was close enough to see the accused's mother running towards Mr Power and his friend pushing her back.
Later, Mr Lee said that Mr Power had pushed Mrs Kerrie back and she fell. In reply, the defence counsel said that the evidence will make that seem "most improbable". Opening the prosecution’s case Thursday, Mr Delaney said the jury may have to consider the issue of self defence in the trial.
On Friday afternoon, Barry Lee, who is the younger brother of the previous witness, said he had arranged to meet Mr Power at Butcher Power's pub around 9pm on the night of July 25. Mr Lee's friend parked up his car behind Mr Power's car, which the witness was travelling in.
After the witness left the pub later that night, Mr Power told him that the wing mirror was torn off his car and there was a dent in the car. Mr Power wanted the witness to go and look at his car but instead he [Barry Lee] walked home to his house around 3.30am and went to bed.
"I wasn't in bed too long and my brother came running into the house and was saying ring the gardaí and said Dean Kerrie had stabbed Jack," said Mr Lee. Mr Lee's father and sister rang the gardaí and the witness said he changed into his clothes and ran down the road.
"When I got down the road, Jack Power was lying on the ground after being stabbed. He was barely breathing if he was even breathing at all. I was checking for a pulse and couldn't find one. The wound was central on his chest, it was small enough I think," he said.
Mr Lee's father did CPR on Mr Power until the gardaí arrived. Mr Lee said his brother Christopher had retrieved a golf club from their house and smashed a window in the Kerrie household. "He lost the head of the golf club and went back to the house to get another golf club and smashed a window," he said.
Mr Lee said he could hear shouting coming from the Kerrie house saying "you will never come near this house again". The witness said he was nearly sure that the shouting was from the accused Mr Kerrie.
Under cross-examination, Mr Lee said there was no damage to Mr Power's car when they parked up behind it that night.
Opening the prosecution’s case on Thursday, Mr Delaney said the jury may have to consider the issue of self defence in the trial. The trial continues on Monday before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of eight men and four women. It is expected to last two weeks.
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