The jury in the manslaughter trial of Mayo farmer Pádraig Nally (62) went to a hotel last night and will resume consideration of its verdict at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin this morning.
The jury of eight men and four women had heard closing speeches from both sides and was told by the judge to approach the case in a cold, clinical and dispassionate fashion.
Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins said the jurors should not decide the case on sympathy for Mr Nally or their views on Travellers or out of sympathy with the Ward family. He said this was "a hard thing to do" because of a lot of publicity and strong feelings about the case.
Mr Nally (62), of Funshinaugh, Cross, Claremorris, Co Mayo, has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Traveller John "Frog" Ward on October 14th, 2004.The victim, a father of 11, died at the scene after being shot twice and beaten with a stick.
Prosecution counsel Paul O'Higgins SC told the jury that much of the evidence heard in the case, other than forensic evidence, comes from Pádraig Nally himself and the statements he made in interviews.
He said Mr Nally was only innocent if the jury believed he had killed John Ward in self defence and judged objectively from the standpoint of someone in Mr Nally's position, used no more force than was reasonably necessary to protect his own life.
If more force was used, then he said he was guilty of manslaughter. He added: "Whatever sympathy you might feel or not feel, this was not seen by Pádraig Nally as a killing in defence."
He said Mr Nally had been focusing on the longer term as he was "seeking to put Mr Ward out of circulation and to ensure he would not again plague Mr Nally". He said the deceased had been trying to get away at the time of the killing and Mr Nally was determined not to allow him to escape.
Brendan Grehan SC, defending, said the prosecution had referred "umpteen times" in closing speeches to the fact that there had been a previous trial in which Pádraig Nally was cleared of murder.
"The prosecution had a nerve even referring to that fact." Mr Grehan said in an altercation in which an intruder came into your home,you are typically most at risk of finishing off the worst.
He said perhaps the most important witness in the case had been Patricia Carney, who said she heard two shots 90 seconds apart, a space of time in which there was no way anybody could work out the options or rationalise how to proceed.
"If you act reasonably in self defence, you are entitled to an acquittal and what is reasonable is determined by the jury."
He said Mr Nally's perception of John Ward and his son, Tom, was that he would be killed and he acted in a "primeval manner." "Help might as well have been on the moon from his point of view," he told the jury.
In other earlier evidence, a Garda ballistics expert said the fatal shot which killed Mr Ward was fired from "no greater" than 4.5 metres (five yards) away.
Det Garda Thomas Carey also told the court that a second gunshot wound to Mr Ward's hip was fired from a distance no greater than 3.5 metres (four yards). He said 40 cartridges were recovered from Mr Nally's house and surrounding areas.