Two men have been found guilty of the murder of 22-year-old Mahamud Ilyas, who was beaten to death and dumped in a wooded area in County Meath after a row over a stolen bag of cannabis.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for seven hours and 52 minutes over four days before returning the unanimous verdict onTuesday against Viorel Doroscan (23) and Otniel Richardo Clejan (24).
They rejected the defence case that the two men had acted in self-defence after they claimed Mr Ilyas came running into an apartment with a weapon and threatened to kill them.
Neither Doroscan nor Clejan made any reaction as the jury’s verdicts were delivered. Each of the men subsequently spoke to members of their legal team and hugged family members.
The jury will continue its deliberations in relation to a co-accused, Lorenzo Cantaragiu (21), of Castlegrange Park, Blanchardstown, on Friday.
Mr Cantaragiu faces various charges of impeding the prosecution or apprehension of Clejan and Doroscan, by carrying out various acts while knowing or believing them to have committed the offence of causing serious harm to Mr Ilyas.
It is alleged that he drove the two murder accused and the deceased to Belgree Lane and that he cleaned the car in which they travelled. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Mr Ilyas’s body was discovered in a wooded area at Belgree Lane in Co Meath on December 10th, 2022. The 22-year-old died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Assistant State pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the trial that the deceased sustained depressed fractures to his head, which were “typical of hammer blows”.
The prosecution had contended that Doroscan and Clejan were involved in the sale and supply of drugs and that they beat Mr Ilyas to death after a row over a stolen bag of cannabis.
Witness Vlady Ndosimau previously told the trial that he barged through the door of the apartment after hearing a loud banging noise.
Inside, he said he witnessed Mr Ilyas sitting on the floor, with his back against a radiator, looking as if he had been beaten and with blood coming from his nose. His hands and feet were tied using a rope or a zip tie and he was moaning while Mr Clejan and Mr Doroscan shouted at him, the witness said.
Mr Doroscan, holding a fruit knife, stood between Mr Ilyas’s legs while Mr Clejan stood close to his head with a hammer in his hand, the witness said. Mr Doroscan, he said, kept on shouting “where is the stuff” while Mr Ilyas responded by “groaning and groaning”.
In his closing address to the jury, Eoin Lawlor SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said use of a hammer was the “modus operandi for conflict resolution” employed by Doroscan, while the “appalling, callous way” in which the victim’s body was disposed of indicated his co-accused’s part in the joint enterprise of the murder.
Doroscan, of Bay Meadows Square, Hollystown, West Dublin, and Clejan, with a former address at Verdemont in Blanchardstown in Dublin 15, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ilyas on December 9th, 2022.
In his closing speech, Michael Lynn SC, representing Mr Cantaragiu, said his client acted reasonably given the “intimidating and terrifying” circumstances in which he found himself.
He reminded the jury that Mr Cantaragiu told gardaí that Doroscan and Clejan had threatened to kill him, and he saw no way to escape.
Mr Lynn added: “At his age, in the circumstances in which he found himself, he acted reasonably. What else could he have done?”
The defendant also told gardaí that he feared that “bigger criminals” or drug dealers would come after him and he was worried for his family.
Mr Lynn said the jury could also be satisfied that when he began driving, Mr Ilyas was still alive and Mr Cantaragiu believed he was taking him to his mother’s house. He had not gone with the intention to impede any prosecution, Mr Lynn said.
