The jury has begun deliberating in the trial of a 35-year-old man charged with murdering two fellow Dubliners, who had planned to sell him a stolen car.
Jason O'Driscoll, with an address at Richmond Avenue, Fairview, has been on trial at the Central Criminal Court for the past month. He has pleaded not guilty to murdering 31-year-old Anthony Burnett and 25-year-old Joseph Redmond in Co Louth on March 7th, 2012.
The trial heard that firefighters were called to a burning car in Ravensdale Forest Park shortly before 11pm. The bodies of the two men were discovered fused together inside the Volkswagen Golf they had stolen that morning. They had been shot in their heads.
It’s the State’s case that Mr O’Driscoll was involved in the murder, travelling to and from the scene in a stolen silver Mercedes S Class. The prosecutor told the jury that it could rely on circumstantial evidence to convict him.
Mr Justice Michael White told the jurors on Monday about inferences that the prosecution wished them to draw.
Car chase
The judge said that it was ‘definitive’ that the Mercedes S Class found abandoned near the Armagh village of Meigh the following morning was the same one involved in a police chase in Newry shortly after the murder.
He explained that one of the inferences that the State wished them to draw was that this car was the same one caught on CCTV footage in the carpark of a chipper in Meigh the night before, eight minutes after the car chase.
He explained that they were also being asked to draw the inference that Mr O’Driscoll was in the vehicle when it arrived in the carpark and that it was he, who was seen walking away from the vehicle.
It is accepted by the defence that Mr O’Driscoll was seen inside the chipper moments later.
The prosecution claims that a police artist sketch of the driver of the Mercedes in the police chase is similar to the appearance of the person seen in the chipper with Mr O’Driscoll.
“They haven’t called evidence of a definitive identification,” explained Mr Justice White. “It’s called supporting evidence.”
The jurors deliberated for about 20 minutes on Monday before being sent home for the evening. They will resume deliberations on Tuesday morning.