THE jury in the Brendan O'Donnell murder trial will resume considering its verdict this morning. Last night at 8 p.m. the jury was sent to a Dublin hotel after it failed to reach a verdict following less than an hour's deliberation.
The six men and six women began considering their decision at 6.56 pm yesterday following the conclusion of the judge's charge and the defence's closing speech.
The jurors returned to court at 7.42 p.m. and requested the transcript of evidence of several medical witnesses and the testimony of Ms Anne Marie O'Donnell.
After legal discussion Mr Justice Lavan told the jurors it was not possible to accede to their request. He said the request caused major difficulties although he recognised the jury's problem in the light of such a lengthy trial.
He pointed out it could not have the transcript until he had approved it and he would not be in a position to do so at this time. There was no way to solve the problem he said.
The judge then sent the jury to a city centre hotel after several gardai were sworn to keep it in charge overnight.
It will resume its deliberations when it returns to the Central Criminal Court at 10 a.m. today. Mr O'Donnell was back in court yesterday for the first time since March 12th when he was allowed to return to the Central Mental Hospital following a suicide attempt on March 11th. Mr Justice Lavan directed, with the agreement of the prosecution and defence, that the trial could proceed in his absence.
Wearing a green anorak blue denim jeans and a blue shirt and patterned tie, Mr O'Donnell sat impassively yesterday through the closing speech from the defence and the judge's charge.
There was tight security for the hearing with gardai taking the names and addresses of persons attending. Press representation was restricted to one person for each media outlet.
Mr O'Donnell has denied 12 charges relating to events in the west of Ireland in 1994. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Imelda Riney (29), and her son Liam (3), between April 29th and May 8th 1994.
He has also denied the murder of Father Joseph Walsh (37), the former curate of Eyrecourt, Co Galway, between May 3rd and 8th 1994, and falsely imprisoning Father Walsh.
Mr O'Donnell has denied kidnapping Ms Fiona Sampson and Mr Edward Cleary on May 7th 1994, and hijacking vehicles driven by both persons.
He has further denied having a shotgun and ammunition with intent to endanger life on the same date.
Relatives of all three victims were in court yesterday as was Ms Fiona Sampson and her family. Mr Justice Lavan told the jurors they would probably note with some relief that they had reached the close of "a very sad episode of Irish legal.
He said he had no view on the facts of the case and no view on how the jury approached the evidence. That was solely a matter for jury.
He said the jury had a choice of three verdicts in relation to the three murder charges guilty of murder, not guilty of murder, and guilty but insane.
The prosecution case was that Mr O'Donnell was responsible for his actions in relation to all the charges. The contrary case was being made by the defence which contended it was a sad, tragic case of a florid schizophrenic who was therefore not responsible for his actions.
The judge said if the jury concluded Mr O'Donnell did kill Imelda and Liam Riney and Father Walsh and killed them unlawfully, it must decide whether he was sane or insane at the time.
"The issue is a case of sanity or insanity," he said.
He urged the jury to approach its deliberations with a clear mind and leave aside the emotions it "must inevitably have sustained" in the course of the case.
He said insanity does not operate as a defence to murder.
Mr Justice Lavan began his charge at 4 p.m. yesterday following the conclusion of a five hour closing speech on behalf of the defence. He concluded his charge at 6 p.m.
The judge asked the jury to retire at that stage but asked it not to formally begin its deliberations until a number of exhibits and other matters were sorted out.
Then the judge brought the jury back and clarified a number of matters in his address. Jurors were presented with a number of exhibits and sent out to consider a verdict at 6.56 p.m.
Earlier in his closing speech Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending, said the proper verdict in the case is guilty but insane.
He said it was more than probable that at the time of the "hideous events" of 1994 that Mr O'Donnell was suffering from such a disease of the mind which the defence contended was schizophrenia of the disorganised or hebephrenic type that he did not know the nature and quality of his acts, did not know they were wrong and if he did know the nature of his acts and knew they were wrong, he could not have stopped himself by virtue of his mental illness.
He told the jurors they were dealing with a very important case. "It may even be a matter of life and death," he said.
He told the jury what it was dealing with was "insanity in any one's language."
Mr MacEntee urged the jury to look at the entire life in so far as we know it" of Mr O'Donnell to the point where he first encounters a psychiatrist at the age of four to today "as he sits there grossly overweight from drugs, his tongue lolling to the side of his mouth from drugs, his fingers coated with nicotine, from drugs prescribed for him" at the Central Mental Hospital.
"When you look at all the evidence, it is my case that this is insanity in anyone's language," counsel said.
Mr O'Donnell was put on the drug Triptasol at the age of four and on Largactyl to remove a psychosis when he was at Trinity House at the age of 14, Mr MacEntee said. He had been in and out of mental hospitals and prisons all his young life.
Remember, counsel told the jury, the terrible events of 1994 had occurred when Mr O'Donnell was only 19.
He urged the jury to take into account the evidence of Mr O'Donnell's teachers who had "no axe to grind". They had described him as the most disturbed child they had ever encountered.
As a schoolboy, Mr O'Donnell was showing all the signs of developing the disease of schizophrenia, he said.
He said Mr O'Donnell had tried to stab his sister in late 1992 after operating under a delusion she was poisoning him and had been committed to Ballinasloe mental hospital by a doctor who expressed the view he was schizophrenic.
But the hospital had discharged him two weeks later after arriving at a provisional diagnosis of perhaps personality disorder, perhaps paranoid ideation, counsel said.
Mr O'Donnell had drifted then and was arrested in Edinburgh in March 1993 in relation to a street robbery charge dating back to January 1991. He was then in three young offenders institutions and two hospitals before being discharged on March 25th 1993.
He had returned to Ireland and appeared to live rough and visit his grandmother in Co Clare. His sister Anne Marie had told the court of seeing him on April 26th 1994 and described him as having hazy eyes and speaking of seeing things in front of his eyes.
The trial had also heard evidence from Ms Maud Nash who gave Mr O'Donnell a lift on the evening of April 28th the day before Imelda Riney was abducted from her home, counsel said. Ms Nash had said she was nervous of him and said he had told her "My fucking head is not too good."
Counsel said Mr O'Donnell's actions over the next few days were not those of a sane man. He appeared to have taken Imelda Riney from her home in broad daylight in her car which was well known. He had later burned her car which was his trademark. He had also driven around in Father Walsh's car and burned that.
Mr O'Donnell had also openly carried a gun around Co Clare at the time when a major Garda search was going on for Imelda and Liam Riney and Father Walsh.
He said the placing of Liam Riney beside the body of his mother after they were both shot was a very curious act, "to return a mother to her child".
Members of the Riney family left the court when counsel went through this part of his speech.
Counsel said Ms Fiona Sampson probably owed her life to knowing intuitively how to deal with a lunatic. In his 36 years as a criminal lawyer, he had never seen a witness like her, Mr MacEntee said. She was "superb, totally truthful, pleasant, balanced" and had no axe to grind.
Mr MacEntee said there was no evidence before the jury that would entitle them to think Mr O'Donnell took pleasure in killing. He said Mr O'Donnell did tell lies but they were shallow, silly lies and not the lies of a cold, calculating and sane killer.
He said three psychiatrists had given the court their considered view Mr O'Donnell suffered from schizophrenia. All doctors who had testified to the court, whether for the State or defence, had agreed schizophrenia was a major mental illness, counsel said.
He urged the jury not to allow anyone to "stampede" it into thinking it was dealing with a simple case. It was a serious case and might well be a case of life and death and deserved careful consideration.