A US lawyer was ordered to be extradited yesterday to face charges of murdering her brother-in-law in a custody dispute concerning her niece.
Ms Beth Ann Carpenter (34), a former public defender from Hartford, Connecticut, is accused of capital felony murder, murder and conspiracy to murder Anson "Buzz" Clinton, who was shot dead in Connecticut on March 10th, 1994.
The Dublin District Court was told Ms Carpenter had an "obsessional" relationship with her four-year-old niece, Rebecca, and told people she was convinced the child was being physically and sexually abused by the stepfather.
Ms Carpenter's parents had cared for Rebecca for a time before their other daughter, Kay, met and married Mr Clinton and they had objected to the couple adopting her.
The court ruled against them, which caused continuing disagreement, with Ms Carpenter and her parents on one side and Mr Clinton and his wife on the other.
The court heard an affidavit from Ms Carpenter's former colleague and lover, Haiman Clein (56), in which he admitted hiring his cocaine-dealer, Mark Despres (37), to carry out the killing at Ms Carpenter's request.
The court was told Clein and Despres had been convicted of their part in the murder while another man, Mr Joseph Fremut, is awaiting trial.
Clein said Ms Carpenter told him: "I am not going to get anywhere with Clinton while he is still alive. Will you kill him for me?"
He asked Despres, from whom he bought $1,000 of drugs a week, if he could "make someone disappear" and Despres agreed to carry out the killing for $5,000. Despres and Mr Fremut made several attempts to stalk the victim but were having trouble locating him.
At another meeting in Clein's office in New London, Ms Carpenter supplied a photograph and other details of Mr Clinton.
Despres saw an advertisement for a tow-truck in a local paper, recognised the phone number as Mr Clinton's and arranged a meeting with him on the pretext of inspecting the vehicle.
Despres took his son Christopher (15) with him and drove be hind Mr Clinton on a highway before reaching Rocky Neck Connector where he stopped and flashed his lights at Mr Clinton. When Mr Clinton came to his car to see what the problem was, Despres emptied a .38 calibre revolver into his body.
Clein said after the murder Ms Carpenter was obsessed about getting caught, was convinced she was being followed and searched him for bugging equipment.
Despres went to Florida, Clein was eventually arrested in California while Ms Carpenter went to Britain before coming to Ireland in February 1997.
The chief prosecutor for the New London district, Mr Kevin Kane, admitted in evidence that the authorities had been in contact with Ms Carpenter, through her lawyer, while she was in London and that she had helped them to locate Clein.
However, her lawyer would not allow her to speak directly to prosecutors without a guarantee of full immunity from prosecution.
A condition of Irish extradition law is that Ms Carpenter would not face the death penalty, although she could face up to life in prison without parole if she is convicted.
After a day of evidence and legal argument yesterday, Judge Desmond Hogan said he was satisfied all legal requirements had been complied with and ordered Ms Carpenter's extradition.
She has 15 days in which to appeal to the High Court.