A MAN on trial for murdering his neighbour outside his home phoned his father and said he had “killed him in the garden”, the jury in the case at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin has heard.
Brendan O’Sullivan snr was giving evidence in the trial of his son, Brendan O’Sullivan (25), O’Gorman Street, Kilrush, Co Clare, who has denied murdering Leslie Kenny (27) outside his own house on July 29th, 2009.
Mr Kenny died almost instantly in Mr O’Sullivan’s garden after sustaining four gunshot wounds.
The court heard that Mr O’Sullivan lived with his wife and two children a few doors away from Mr Kenny and his girlfriend.
Mr O’Sullivan snr told the court that he and his wife, Brendan O’Sullivan’s stepmother, were at his son’s house within five minutes of receiving the phone call on that morning.
They found Mr O’Sullivan sitting on his garden bench and his stepmother asked him: “Who did you shoot?”
Mr O’Sullivan snr said his son replied “turn around”, and they saw Mr Kenny lying at the bottom of the garden.
Mr O’Sullivan said he asked his son why he did it, but he was given no explanation.
Mr O’Sullivan snr said he then found his son’s wife, Claire, crying at the back of the house.
Gardaí arrived moments later.
Residents of O’Gorman Street also gave evidence and described hearing shouting, roaring and bad language on the street that morning.
They recalled seeing Mr O’Sullivan standing on his garden bench shouting at Mr Kenny: “Come down here and we’ll talk about it.”
A number of them saw Mr Kenny begin to leave his garden and walk down the street, but they then went inside as they did not want to become involved.
One eyewitness described Mr O’Sullivan as repeatedly roaring: “Come f**ing down here and we’ll talk about it” and said he seemed agitated.
All witnesses said they did not hear what Mr Kenny said in reply, but said he did not appear agitated or aggressive as he walked towards Mr O’Sullivan.
Joanne Carrig, whose sister Rebecca lived with Mr Kenny, told the jury she was inside her house when she heard two shots, then a pause and then two more shots.
When she went outside, she saw her sister walking towards Mr O’Sullivan’s house and saw him pacing around the garden on a mobile phone.
When her sister reached the garden, Ms Carrig said she heard her screaming “Leslie”, over and over again.
Under cross-examination by John Phelan, defending, Ms Carrig said she knew that Mr Kenny was involved in drugs and theft and that he drank.
She did not know if he had convictions for carrying weapons, such as hammers and knives, nor was she aware if people in the town were frightened of him.
“He was very polite to me, I can’t speak ill of him. He was never violent or aggressive to me,” she said.
Another neighbour, Pat Breasil, described Mr O’Sullivan as a “model neighbour.”
He said he did not know Mr Kenny but knew he had a certain amount of a reputation. He agreed, under cross-examination by Mr Phelan, that a certain number of people in Kilrush were frightened of Mr Kenny
Michael Durack SC, prosecuting, told the jury that it would hear in evidence that a double-barrelled shotgun was used on Mr Kenny and that gardaí found four shotgun cartridges at the scene.
He said there would be evidence that two shots were fired, the gun was reloaded and two more shots were fired.
Concluding his opening speech, Mr Durack said to the jury: “I suggest to you that by the time you hear all the evidence, you will be satisfied that Mr O’Sullivan is guilty of murder.”
The trial resumes today before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and the jury.