Ennis woman Sharon Collins was today found guilty of conspiring to murder her partner and his two sons.
She was also found guilty on three counts of soliciting Egyptian man Essam Eid (52) to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard between August 1st, 2006, and September 26th, 2006.
However, the jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin were undecided on whether Eid was also guilty of conspiring to murder the three men.
Mr Justice Roderick Murphy had earlier told the jury he would accept a majority verdict in the case of Eid but after a further two hours of deliberation this afternoon, the jury still failed to reach a decision.
Justice Murphy, this evening, discharged jury and remanded both defendents in custody until October 8th.
The jury earlier found Eid guilty of attempting to extort €100,000 from Robert to call off the “hit” and of two counts of handling stolen property.
But he was found not guilty of breaking into the Howard family business at Westgate Business Park and stealing two computers, some computer cables, a digital clock and a poster of old Irish money.
Collins (45), Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, and Eid , with an address in Las Vegas, Nevada in the US, had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill the three men.
It was the prosecution's case that Ms Collins paid Eid €15,000 to kill Mr Howard and his sons.
The prosecution said she contacted the site Hitman.us using the email address lyingeyes98@ yahoo.ie and that she entered into a correspondence with Eid, who was allegedly using the pseudonym Tony Luciano with the email address Hire_hitman@ yahoo.com.
A statement released tonight on behalf of the Howards said: "We are relieved that this long trial has come to a conclusion and we would like to express our appreciation to the members of the jury for their patience and attention."
It is also appropriate to record our gratitude to the many people who have assisted us during this difficult
period. We now look forward to getting on with our lives and we request the privacy that's necessary to assist us in this respect. It is not our intention to make any further statement."
Collins's defence team had maintained that she sent the €15,000 in answer to a blackmail demand. She said that she was blackmailed over sexual allegations she had made against Mr Howard in an e-mail to her writing mentor Maria Marconi.
But the prosecution argued that Ms Marconi does not exist.
Eid's defence team also contended he was wrongly identified by Robert Howard as the man who had demanded €100,000 to cancel a contract against himself, his brother and his father.
They also said that the plan for which Eid and one of his two wives, Teresa Engle, were arrested was merely an attempt to extort money from the Howards and was never a plot to kill.
In his closing argument to the jury last Friday, David Sutton SC, for Eid, said his client was merely a "patsy" in the prosecution's attempt to secure a conviction for Collins.
On Friday, the jury asked Mr Justice Murphy whether it was necessary to convict both accused on the conspiracy charges or whether it was possible to convict one only.
In his charge Mr Justice Murphy told the jurors that in order to convict on conspiracy they would have to be satisfied that both the accused had conspired with one another.
However, he told them, in cases where the case was proved against one and not the other, they could convict that accused.