A 43-year-old Traveller was shot twice and badly beaten with a stick when he called to the home of a Co Mayo farmer last October, the Central Criminal Court in Castlebar was told yesterday.
Padraig Nally (61) is pleading not guilty to the murder of John Ward at Funshinagh, Cross, on October 14th last.
Addressing Mr Justice Paul Carney and the jury at the start of the trial, Paul O'Higgins SC said the prosecution's case would be that there was an intention of a deliberate killing.
The accused was "gravely suspicious" of and disliked Travellers who stole from houses and in the previous February he himself had had a chainsaw stolen, which had heightened his anxiety or antagonism.
Wearing a blue pullover and with his hands by his side, Mr Nally replied "Not guilty" yesterday when the charge was read to him.
Mr O'Higgins said that when the deceased called to the 65-acre Nally holding the accused injured him with a round from a single-barrel shotgun before giving him a heavy beating and then shooting him a second time, this time fatally, as he tried to escape.
Mr O'Higgins said Mr Nally hit Mr Ward on the head with a 61cm (2ft) long, 5cm (2in) wide, stick and he later told gardaí: "It was like hitting a stone or a badger. You could hit him but not kill him."
Mr O'Higgins said that at 2pm on October 14th Mr Nally was at his farmhouse when he became aware of a car outside. He went out and in the car he found Tom Ward, a Traveller (son of the deceased). He approached the car.
In February 2004 he had had a chainsaw stolen, and that had heightened his anxiety or antagonism. When he went out to Tom Ward he asked where the person with him was and was told he was around the back of the house and that he might like to buy his car.
The evidence would be that Mr Nally said to Tom Ward: "He won't be coming out again." Mr Nally walked to the shed. He got a single-barrel shotgun and walked to the back door of the house. When he came close to John Ward, 3.7m (12ft) or 4.6m (15ft) from him, he shot him.
It was not a fatal shot but it inflicted a significant wound to the right hip and hand.
There was an encounter at that stage between John Ward and Mr Nally. There would be evidence that he took a heavy beating at the hands of Mr Nally, counsel said.
He would not say John Ward was there for the good of the community, but the penalty for larceny or burglary was not death.
At all times from the first shooting the objective of John Ward was to escape. Tom Ward drove off in the car in which he and his father had come.
Mr O'Higgins said John Ward was beaten in a bed of nettles by Mr Nally and was running or limping from the Nally lands when Mr Nally went to a bucket in his shed in which he had left cartridges. After reloading while John Ward was staggering and exiting from the Nally house he followed him up the road.
John Ward had his back turned when Mr Nally shot him from a distance of 3.7m (12ft) or 4.6m (15ft). That shot went through his left arm and out the other side, into the lung cavity and penetrated the heart, killing him.
Mr O'Higgins said John Ward had died instantly, and Mr Nally then picked him up from the road and put him over the wall. He said that at that stage Mr Nally got into his car, went to the Varley house and contacted gardaí to say what he had done.
Tom Ward, son of the deceased, gave evidence of going "spinning around in the Headford direction" with his father on October 14th looking for a car.
They spotted an old white Nissan on the right-hand side of the road and stopped to see if it was for sale.
The witness said that after he had parked his car, Mr Nally had come out and asked him: "What are you looking for?" When he told Mr Nally why his father had gone around the back, the accused replied: "He won't be coming out."
The witness explained that he saw Mr Nally go to a shed and come back with a shotgun in his hand. As he walked towards the house he let a shot off and he drove out and parked on the road.
After he had parked his car he saw the defendant walk out to the road and look at him before driving off in the other direction.
He called out for his father a number of times, but there was no reply and he then hailed an oncoming car, telling the driver his father had been shot. He went to the Garda station in Headford.
The trial continues today.