A man was jailed for life by the Central Criminal Court yesterday after a jury found him guilty of murdering a 17-year-old.
Vincent Flynn (19) of Kiltipper Close, Old Bawn, Co Dublin had denied the murder of Mr Steven Morris at Killakee Walk, Firhouse, Co Dublin on May 2nd, 1998.
After six hours of deliberation over two days and 23 minutes, the jury returned a majority verdict of 10 to two that Flynn was guilty of murder by stabbing Mr Morris in front of his family home.
Sentencing Flynn, in a packed and silent courtroom, Mr Justice Kinlen said: "I therefore have no option but to sentence you to life imprisonment."
Members of both families were silently weeping after sentence was passed. Members of the Morris family embraced one another.
In response to the conviction, a brother of the deceased, Mr Rory Morris, presented lines of poetry to the press saying that the Morris family had been "broken" by the murder of his only brother "on the dawn of his life."
"My only brother was ripped from our lives . . . an empty seat, a cold bed. Three plates instead of four and a broken family. What's left? None more."
Mr Justice Kinlen made an order that the prison authorities were to "monitor" Flynn to ensure that he "gets the appropriate medication at the appropriate times."
An application for leave to appeal by Mr John Edwards SC, defending, on two grounds against the conviction was refused.
Relieving the jury members of jury service for the rest of their lives as reward for their "deeply conscientious" approach to the case, Mr Justice Kinlen thanked the seven men and five women for their service in what he described as a "very sad" case, "in particular for the two families."
During the nine-day trial the court heard that after a row with his then girlfriend in which she told him their relationship was over, the accused grabbed an eight-inch long hunting knife.
Ms Bernadette Jolley, who had been going out with the accused since 1995, had had sexual contact with Flynn in his bedroom before telling him their relationship was off and that he "just had to get over it."
Ms Jolley told the court she told Flynn she fancied Mr Morris, and that she was sick of hearing how Flynn threatened to kill himself if she left him. She told him she would "help him" commit suicide if he wanted.
Flynn then ran through the streets, eventually ending up at the deceased's home and calling for him.
Mr Morris, who was at home with his girlfriend watching television, went to the door after his brother Rory told him there was someone there for him.
Brandishing the knife, Flynn told Mr Morris not to "go near" Ms Jolley, and Mr Morris replied: "Why, what are you going to do? Stab me?" At this point Flynn thrust the knife in a downward motion into the chest of Mr Morris, killing him within minutes.
The court also heard how Flynn had suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which inclined him to be impulsive. In his summing up to the jury the prosecution counsel, Mr Patrick Gageby SC, said impulsiveness was no defence in law for murder.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy had told the court that the weapon used to inflict the fatal injury would have been held as a "dagger and brought downwards into the body" and that an eight-inch hunting knife later retrieved by gardai could have caused that injury.
The cause of death of the Leaving Certificate student was the piercing of the aorta.