Haiman Clein and Mark Despres had a mutually beneficial relationship. Clein was a Connecticut attorney, and Despres, an experienced criminal, had regular need of his services. For his part, Despres was Clein's cocaine supplier and the attorney was in even more regular need of his.
Their relationship deepened after a conversation between them at a 1993 Christmas party in Clein's office. The attorney told Despres about "a real bad guy" who was molesting a young girl. What would it take to make this man "disappear"? he asked his associate.
Despres suggested $10,000. Clein negotiated it down to $8,000. Despres eventually settled for something nearer $5,000 and the hit was carried out.
On March 10th, 1994, Despres arranged a meeting with Anson "Buzz" Clinton (28), posing as a potential buyer for a truck Clinton was selling. They drove in separate cars to the place the truck was kept, until they reached an exit on the highway known as the Rocky
Neck Connector. In the words of Despres's statement to the police: "I decided this was where I was going to kill him".
He flashed the car ahead to stop. Clinton pulled up to see what he wanted, whereupon Despres "emptied" his .38 revolver into the would-be truck seller. Despres's 15-year-old son watched the killing from the car, having been allowed in on the secret by his father.
Despres (37) and Clein (56) are serving life sentences in the US. This story of rough justice American-style was retold in a Dublin court yesterday as Connecticut prosecutors sought the extradition of the woman they and the men already imprisoned claim instigated the murder.
Ms Beth Anne Carpenter (34), a sister-in-law of the murdered man, sat with her arms crossed through- out most of the day-long hearing. A slight, red-haired woman with glasses, she wore a smart beige suit and an intense expression, which changed only once when she smiled wanly at a joke by the judge.
According to affidavits read in court, the murder had its origins in Ms Carpenter's objections to her sister's marriage to Clinton. She was "obsessed" with her niece Rebecca, the sister's daughter by a previous relationship, and convinced that Clinton was abusing the child.
She and her parents sought custody of Rebecca, but by late 1993 Ms Carpenter, a partner in Clein's office and also his lover, had con- cluded she could not secure the child's welfare by legal means.
According to Clein's statement, she began pressing him to kill Clinton, and a plot was hatched when the two met Despres at the office party. Once the murder was carried out, it is claimed, she be- came obsessed with the belief that they would be caught and her relationship with Clein ended when she left the US for England.
The ending was acrimonious. The prosecutor from Connecticut, Mr Kevin Kane, admitted in court yesterday that Clein's statement was the cornerstone of the prosecution's case against Ms Carpenter. He also conceded that Ms Carpenter had facilitated Clein's arrest, pinpointing his location at a pay phone in California at which she had arranged to telephone him from London.
Despres was arrested after being found hiding in the boot of his girl friend's car. Ms Carpenter lived in Ireland for most of last year, and was finally arrested in Sandy mount, Dublin, in November.
Judge Desmond Hogan listened to lengthy objections to the extradition request, but rejected them. Then, interrupted by counsel on the question of her entitlement of 15 days in which to lodge an appeal, he said: "I was coming to that, oh ye of little faith".
Ms Carpenter smiled a faint smile and talked quietly with her lawyers, before being taken back to Mountjoy Prison.
