A 23-YEAR-OLD has been found guilty of murdering a man who was walking with his girlfriend and children in Dublin last year.
Keith Wilson, of Cremona Road, Ballyfermot, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Daniel Gaynor at St Helena’s Road in Finglas on August 14th, 2010.
He had also pleaded not guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. The jury in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on both counts.
Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan said he had no discretion in sentencing for the murder and imposed the mandatory life sentence.
He also imposed eight years for the firearms offence to run concurrently with the life sentence, backdating them to November last year.
The court heard Wilson had nine previous convictions, mostly for driving offences but also for damaging property and threatening and abusive behaviour.
Daniel Gaynor died after he was shot in the neck while walking on St Helena’s Road with his girlfriend and two children on their way to an aunt’s house.
A victim impact statement read to the court on behalf of the family said Mr Gaynor’s young sons who witnessed the killing were deeply traumatised and are in counselling. His girlfriend, Sarah Treacy, is in regular contact with a counsellor. His mother is inconsolable and his family would never be able to get over it.
It was the prosecution’s case that Wilson was the gunman and that DNA evidence found on items retrieved near the scene linked him to the crime.
The jury heard the killer was wearing white magician’s gloves, a black cap with “street magic” written on it and a hoody top. A gun was found near the scene and was forensically examined.
Dr Clara O’Sullivan of the Forensic Science Laboratory said the chance of someone having the same DNA was less than one in a billion. She said the chance of a brother having the same DNA profile was one in 27,400. An identical twin would have the same DNA but Wilson did not have an identical twin.
Prosecuting counsel Alex Owens told the jury the case relied “very heavily on silent witnesses and circumstantial evidence” and “all of the circumstantial evidence points to the guilt of the accused”.
“Either he’s the unluckiest man in Ireland or he is drowning in a sea of circumstantial evidence.”
Brendan Grehan, for the accused, said there was “a striking void of evidence” in the case. There was no evidence Gaynor ever knew the accused or that Wilson knew the deceased, there was no evidence of any motive and no positive identification of him.