The jury in the trial of a Dublin woman accused of murdering a taxi driver by crushing him with her car has failed to reach a verdict following two days of deliberations.
The jury of six men and six women said they could not agree on a majority verdict and remained split by a margin of nine to three after more than six and a half hours of discussions.
Claire Nolan (23) of Sheephill Green in Blanchardstown, gave no reaction as Mr Justice Barry White thanked the jury and said the case would be sent forward for retrial.
She had denied murdering Michael Duffy (66), by driving her car at him and crushing him in the driveway of his son’s home at Well View Grove, Blanchardstown in January 2008.
Ms Nolan, who has been attending a drug treatment centre since June, admitted manslaughter. But the prosecution refused to accept the plea and the murder trial lasted six days at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Duffy, from North King Street in north inner city Dublin, died after receiving a massive crush injury to the chest that broke his spine, severed his spinal cord and crushed part of his heart and liver. His injuries were described as “not survivable” by the State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy during her evidence at the trial.
The court heard that Ms Nolan had spent the evening of January 25th 2008 at her friend’s home in Well View Grove, Blanchardstown drinking wine and taking sleeping tablets and cocaine.
Giving evidence via video-link from Australia, the accused’s friend Maria Cunninngham Dutton described seeing Francis “Fran” Duffy, her next door neighbour and son of the deceased, trying to break into the accused’s car.
A row broke out and “Fran” rang his father, who then drove to his son’s home from Cavan where he had been visiting friends.
Ms Cunningham-Dutton said the accused was “off her head on cocaine” at the time and “in a rage” after the altercation with Fran (42). She said they had always had trouble with him as a neighbour, and he was described as being “a bit of a fruitcake” by another witness.
In her interviews with gardaí, the accused said she had no idea Michael Duffy had arrived at the scene when she drove her car at 30 kilometres an hour into the driveway of Fran’s house to “get him.” She said she had “lost it” and wanted to hit Fran with her car and wreck his house and scare him back inside.
Ms Nolan said Michael Duffy jumped in front of her out of nowhere and she ended up crushing him against the house. “I ended up squashing the man, I didn’t mean to squash him.. I couldn’t stop... I couldn’t break.... and I ended up squashing the man” she said. She then reversed at speed out of the driveway and drove away from the scene.
An ambulance was called for Mr Duffy but he had lost a significant amount of blood and was pronounced dead a short time later at James Connolly Memorial Hospital.
Ms Nolan said it was a “freak accident” and apologised repeatedly in her Garda interviews. “I didn’t mean to kill anyone...it was an accident I apologise.”
Senior counsel for the prosecution Patrick Gageby SC however said it was “manifestly clear that this was not an accident.” He said the accused had “tons of motive” and had “acted from revenge” and there was elements of planning, premeditation and skilled driving in her actions.
But Ms Nolan’s defence lawyer, Brendan Grehan, said she wa “totally out of control...unable to act in any reasonable, rational or logical way...and determined to do something that was grossly dangerous to herself.”
“She accepts that she’s killed and she’s taken a life but she is not a murderer” he said during the trial.
But following two days and almost seven hours of deliberations, the jury failed to reach a verdict in the case.
A new date for the trial is due to be fixed on March 22nd.