Man guilty of murdering Kildare native with baseball bat

Zoltan Almasi (44) of Harbour View found guilty of murdering Joseph Dunne in 2014

Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan at the Central Criminal Court remanded Zoltan Almasi in custody to be sentenced on Wednesday, March 16th. File photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times

A Hungarian national has been found guilty of murdering a 20-year-old Kildare man with a baseball bat.

Zoltan Almasi (44), with an address at Harbour View, Naas, Co Kildare, was charged with murdering Joseph Dunne at the same address on May 16th, 2014.

Two weeks ago at the Central Criminal Court, Almasi pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Dunne.

Today, the jury of six men and six women returned a majority verdict of guilty of murder after 11 hours and 13 minutes of deliberating.

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The jury had retired to begin their deliberations on Monday morning at 12.44am.

On Tuesday, Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan gave the jury the option of bringing in a majority verdict, after four hours and 48 minutes of deliberating.

On Wednesday, the foreman of the jury told the court at least 10 of the members had not agreed on a verdict, and more time would be of assistance to them.

Following today’s verdict, Ms Justice Heneghan thanked the jury and exempted them from jury service for a period of 15 years.

“You have been here for 12 days. You have worked very hard and very conscientiously in the trial here and in the course of your deliberations.

“The work you do here is extremely important. I thank you for the time you have given to this criminal trial,” said Ms Justice Heneghan.

The judge remanded Mr Almasi in custody to be sentenced on Wednesday, March 16th.