A 21-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed for life and a 19-year-old man for seven years for killing a father of six on his 40th birthday in a case of mistaken identity.
Jonathan Fitzgerald (21), South Claughan Road, Garryowen, Limerick, received his life sentence for murdering Noel Crawford on December 18th, 2006. He shot and killed Mr Crawford as the victim stood outside his parents’ home in O’Malley Park, Southill, in the city.
Fitzgerald had pleaded not guilty to the murder but a jury found him guilty on Monday following a four-week trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Michael O’Callaghan (19), Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, had also been charged with Mr Crawford’s murder. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter before he was due to go on trial in November and his plea was accepted as he was 15 at the time of the killing.
Det Sgt Denis Treacy said O’Callaghan admitted his involvement a month after the shooting.
O’Callaghan said he was not with Fitzgerald when Fitzgerald carried out the murder. O’Callaghan was originally from O’Malley Park and had shown him the way to the house, but had not gone all the way with him.
“He said he was sorry about what happened to Noel Crawford, that it wasn’t meant for him,” testified Det Sgt Treacy. “He said Jonathan Fitzgerald had meant to shoot Paul Crawford .”
Det Sgt Treacy said O’Callaghan’s father, Gerard Power, was stabbed to death in 1995 when O’Callaghan was aged three. His mother had serious alcohol problems. “His upbringing was in a dysfunctional family,” he said. “His family moved out of Southill in mid-2006 when Michael became involved in serious feuding in the city.”
He said O’Callaghan was shot in 2006, and in May of that year he was involved in shooting a man in Moyross. He had received a suspended sentence for assault causing harm, but it was later increased to a 12-month sentence.
The detective said O’Callaghan moved in with an 18-year-old cousin on the north side of the city when he was 14. “I believe his mother could no longer exercise control over him or look after him,” he said. “During that period, he became very involved in criminal and gangland activities in Limerick.” He said gardaí would frequently encounter him at the age of 14 in the company of criminals and wearing a bullet-proof vest.
He agreed with Brendan Nix, defending O’Callaghan, that he had given as much information as possible to gardaí, drawing a sketch of the gun. He agreed O’Callaghan would not have known where to get a gun or have had the resources to get a bullet-proof vest at the time. He agreed Noel Crawford and his mother were “thoroughly decent people”.
The detective confirmed this was a gangland killing to Mr Justice Barry White. “This incident on the night arose directly from the abduction,” he said, referring to the kidnap of Fitzgerald’s sister hours earlier. The trial heard Fitzgerald had believed Paul Crawford was behind that crime. “That abduction arose out of an ongoing feud in the city to which members of each family have links,” he added. “Retaliation is the norm in these incidents. It’s expected, and very common.”
Mr Justice White noted O’Callaghan’s father’s death by stabbing. “Today, the violence in Limerick has escalated way beyond the level that existed previously, to a level where there are gangland feuds, gangland killings and gangland retaliations. In the trial of your co-accused, Limerick was likened by one witness to the wild west – and that has to end.”
He imposed a 14-year sentence on O’Callaghan, suspending the final seven years. He imposed the mandatory life sentence on Fitzgerald.
Brian McInerney, defending Fitzgerald, applied for leave to appeal conviction and sentence, saying if he had been sentenced before he turned 18 there would not have been a mandatory life sentence. He was refused but granted free legal aid in the event of an appeal against that refusal.
Victim Impact Statement
Úna Ni Raifeartaigh, prosecuting, read a victim impact statement prepared by the victim’s mother, Mary Crawford, on behalf of his family.
She described herself as a “broken-hearted mother”. The family had been planning Noel Crawford’s 40th birthday celebrations, she added, when he was callously shot.
“It was to be a day of great joy,” she said. “But it was the day he died.” The pain that followed was indescribable.
“I’m haunted by the sight of seeing my son lying dead at my front door,” she continued.
She said her son was never in trouble in his life and was a good father to his children. He had missed out on the birth of his first grandson, and his son’s 18th birthday.
“He too was one of the innocents murdered,” she said. “To the world, Noel was just another murder victim, but to me Noel was the world.”
She hoped justice would bring some closure for her.
“I now spend half my life existing and the other half with Noel, not in person but in my heart,” she said. “Thank you son, for all you brought into our lives.”