The jury in the trial of a Co Clare woman and a former Las Vegas poker dealer accused of conspiring to kill the woman’s partner and his two sons have heard that the prosecution believe they have an “overwhelming” case against the two accused.
Sharon Collins (45), of Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis and Essam Eid (53), an Egyptian man with a Nevada address have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard between August 1st 2006 and 26 September 2006. Ms Collins also denied hiring Mr Eid to shoot the three men.
Mr Eid denies demanding €100,000 from 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.
Counsel for the prosecution, Tom O'Connell SC told the jury of eight men and four women that the defences put forward by Mr Eid and Ms Collins were "confabulations and lies" and they would hear technical evidence of a trail of emails and phone calls between the two which show the progression of the conspiracy.
Mr O'Connell said that on August 2nd, 2006 a Yahoo email account in the name of Lyingeyes was set up for an email address that had contact with Ms Collins' Eircom address and was in correspondence with another email account in the name of Hitmanforhire the prosecution believed belonged to Mr Eid.
Essam Eid denies demanding EUR100,000 from Robert Howard to cancel the contracts
He said they would hear that, in a series of emails between these two email accounts in August 2006, a contract was agreed to kill Mr Howard and his two sons for $90,000. In arranging for a down payment the email account allegedly used by Mr Eid, using the name Tony Luciano, gave American bank account details for a FedEx payment and the name of Essam Eid.
Lyingeyes identified herself in a photograph of Mr Howard and Ms Collins at a Christmas party as "the devil in the red dress".
Phone numbers and addresses given in the emails, belonged to Mr Eid and Ms Collins and Hitmanforhire asked for the down payment to be sent to Theresa Engels, Mr Eid's "wife".
Lyingeyes stressed that the deaths of the three men who were identified as her husband and his two sons, must look accidental or due to natural causes.
Mr O'Connell said Lyingeyes explained that while she felt sad about the death of Mr Howard's sons, she had no choice in getting rid of them because of the way the inheritance was organised.
Lyingeyes suggested that the two sons could meet with an accident in a car or on a boat and it was eventually agreed that they would be poisoned in their local pub in Kilkee, Co Clare, where they had a holiday home.
Mr O'Connell said it was arranged that Mr Howard would be killed shortly after receiving the news of his sons' deaths by pushing him off the roof of the apartment he owned in Malaga in a simulated suicide.
He told the jury that it was the prosecution's case that these emails were between Mr Eid and Ms Collins.
He said Ms Collins had moved in with Mr Howard in 1998, some months after meeting him. When his wife died in 2003 she became anxious to marry him but he was reluctant to do so because it would complicate rights of inheritance as he wanted his sons to inherit his assets.
Mr O'Connell told the jury they would hear that Ms Collins arranged a wedding in Rome in 2005 but Mr Howard backed out. They went to Sorrento where they took part in a church ceremony pledging themselves to each other. However, no marriage took place and documents were signed before the couple left Italy to confirm this.
He said that on their return Ms Collins told people there had been a marriage and the couple held a wedding reception party in November 2005.
He told the jury that they would hear that Ms Collins arranged for a proxy marriage legal under Mexican law which she used to get an Irish passport in the name of Sharon Howard.
He said that at the time, Mr Eid was working as a poker dealer in a casino in Las Vegas. The jury would hear from Theresa Engels, who would tell them she had married Mr Eid and lived with him and his former wife Lisa Eid in northern Las Vegas.
Mr Eid had been identified by Robert and Niall Howard as the man, calling himself Tony, who arrived at their house on September 26th, 2006. He had a laptop computer, which had been stolen from the family business the night before and also had photographs and details of the Howard family.
Mr O'Connell said that Robert Howard would say that Mr Eid demanded €100,000 to cancel the contract on him, his brother and his father.
Mr Eid was arrested when he turned up to collect the money the next day and was caught in a Garda operation along with Ms Engels. A search of his room found items stolen from the Howard business premises as well as keys to the premises. Mr O'Connell said that the burglary had been an inside job and whoever had been responsible had both the keys and the code to the alarm.
He said that Mr Eid told gardaí Ms Collins had previously been his lover and had paid for him to fly to Ireland with Ms Engels.
Mr O'Connell told the jury they would hear that gardaí searched Mr Eid's cell in Limerick prison based on information received from the FBI and discovered traces of Ricin powder in a contact lenses case hidden under his bed.
Ms Collins told gardaí that she had not known Mr Eid.
The trial will continue tomorrow before Mr Justice Roderick Murphy. It is expected to last for four weeks.