Biker murder trial like US drama featuring men ‘with health issues’

A Co Limerick biker who shot a member of a rival motorcycle club dead saw an opportunity for retribution and murdered an innocent man, a barrister told a jury at the Central Criminal Court on Thursday.

The jury heard closing speeches in the trial of Alan ‘Cookie’ McNamara (51), of Mountfune, Murroe, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Andrew O’Donoghue on June 20th, 2015. The trial has heard that Mr McNamara was a member of the Caballeros Motorcycle Club while the deceased was a member of the Road Tramps.

His barrister said Mr McNamara was acting in defence of himself and his family after members of the rival club threatened to kill him and burn down his home.

Michael Delaney SC, for the prosecution, told the jury that the evidence may have brought to mind US television dramas, but in this case the location is not California, but Limerick, and it involves middle aged men some of whom have health issues.

There was no doubt, he said, that Mr McNamara shot Mr O’Donoghue. The jury must decide if he intended to kill or cause serious injury to Mr O’Donoghue and whether he was acting in defence of himself and his family.

“We say self defence doesn’t get off the ground,” said Mr Delaney. “There were no circumstances which necessitated the use of any force, let alone the force he did use.”

Waistcoat

The trial heard that Mr McNamara had been assaulted on the day before the shooting in Doon after he entered a pub wearing a waistcoat with the colours of the Caballeros sewn into it. On leaving the pub, two members of the Road Tramps took his waistcoat and one punched him in the face.

In garda interviews, Mr McNamara said that soon after he arrived home that evening, three members of the Road Tramps pulled up outside his home and, in front of his wife and children, threatened to kill him and burn down his house.

Mr Delaney asked the jury to consider whether that happened at all and reminded them that one of the men named by Mr McNamara was Jim McInerney, who denied it outright.

On the day of the shooting, Mr McNamara told gardaí he was “out of my mind” and in a panic. “It didn’t stop him making two phone calls to his insurance company for routine matters,” said Mr Delaney.

The accused later received a call from his stepson Robert Cusack who told him he was in a car with two other Caballeros and they were chasing a member of the Road Tramps. Mr McNamara then went to the Road Tramps clubhouse knowing that one of the Road Tramps was being pursued in that direction.

Mr Delaney said the accused man brought a gun with him because this was an opportunity for him to obtain some form of retribution. Mr McNamara told gardaí that when he got to the clubhouse he saw men carrying what he thought were guns.

Mr Delaney said he stopped because “he saw an opportunity to shoot a Road Tramp and he wasn’t going to pass that up.”

Unwelcome

Hugh Hartnett SC, for the defence, said the killing was tragic because Mr O’Donoghue is dead and his client, a father and a family man, was on trial for murder. He asked the jury to consider what caused this to happen. He said they had heard that the Road Tramps wanted to make his client feel unwelcome in the area but, unfortunately for him, he lived within three minutes of the Road Tramps clubhouse.

He had been attacked and three of them, one of them waving a gun, had threatened him and his family with being burnt out of their home. “Would that have an effect on the mind of an average man?” he asked the jury, adding that his client knew what the Road Tramps were capable of.

He reminded the jury of the weapons found at their clubhouse and that one of the Road Tramps, Kevin Ryan, had a conviction for a firearms offence. Knowing all this, and knowing that he might have to defend himself and his family, he asked the jury to consider Mr McNamara’s state of mind “on this awful day”.

He told the jury that if it were a planned murder, Mr McNamara would not have done it in front of a CCTV camera that he knew was pointing at him when he fired the shot at the gates of the Road Tramps clubhouse.

When he received the call from his stepson to say that they were heading towards the clubhouse in pursuit of one of the Road Tramps, he was worried because he knew what these people were capable of.

Mr Hartnett said it was wrong for him to bring a gun but he was a “panicked and frightened man” and feared that his family could be attacked at any time. In his fear, he believed the men at the clubhouse had guns.

He added that the ballistics showed that only one third of the pellets in the cartridge that he fired struck the deceased, which he said was consistent with what Mr McNamara told gardaí - that he did not aim the gun or intend to kill anyone.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott will deliver his charge to the jury on Friday.