A man jailed for life for firing 10 bullets into his victim in Dublin in 2010 has lost an appeal against his conviction for murder.
Jonathan Douglas (30), aka Yuka, of O'Devaney Gardens in Dublin, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Aidan Bryne at Drumalee Avenue, Dublin on February 20th, 2010.
He was found guilty by a jury following an 11-day trial and given a mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Paul Carney on July 23rd, 2012.
The jury heard Douglas was hired to kill Mr Byrne (31) who was a front seat passenger in a Toyota Corolla car which was driven by another man to a laneway in Drumalee estate near the North Circular Road.
Douglas waited for the arrival of the car and walked up to it before firing 10 bullets into the passenger window, killing Mr Byrne. The bullets hit the victim in the chest and abdomen.
Prosecution counsel Gerard Clarke SC said Douglas was drinking in Eamon Rea’s pub on Parkgate Street a short time before the shooting.
“He left the pub suddenly leaving half a drink behind him and went to where Mr Byrne was going to be driven to and he was waiting to shoot him,” according to prosecuting counsel.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis told the court Mr Byrne died from multiple gun shot wounds to his body. He said that eight of the bullets had exited Mr Byrne’s body while two remained inside his body.
Central to Douglas’s appeal against conviciton, which was opened in the Court of Appeal in October, was the trial judge’s treatment of two witness statements made by Douglas’ step-niece Stacey Douglas and her boyfriend Andrew Sheridan.
Recanted
The couple had originally made statements to gardaí implicating Jonathan Douglas in the murder but subsequently recanted from what they had stated and were treated as hostile witnesses during the trial.
Giving judgment in the Court of Appeal on Monday, Mr Justice Alan Mahon said the judge did not err in his decision to admit the evidence on the basis that they were matters ultimately for a jury to decide on their truthfulness or voluntariness.
Mr Justice Mahon said the jury heard the evidence of Ms Douglas and Mr Sheridan in relation to the circumstances in which their statements were made and efforts they made to withdraw them.
It was made clear to the jury that a central issue in the trial was the truthfulness or voluntariness of the statements.
Mr Justice Mahon said the court was satisfied that the jury was adequately directed by the judge and it was unlikely that the jury didn’t appreciate its task.
Furthermore, the reference in evidence to “gangland killing” by a prosecution witness ought not to have been uttered, Mr Justice Mahon said, but it was made out of the blue at an early stage in a long running trial.
The manner in which it was comprehensively addressed by the trial judge negated any risk of prejudice, Mr Justice Mahon said.
Finally, he said it was appropriate that issues related to Ms Douglas and Mr Sheridan were matters to be left for the jury.
Mr Justice Mahon, who sat with Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan, said all grounds of appeal were therefor dismissed.