Vesel Jahiri found guilty of 2012 murder of Anna Finnegan

A Central Criminal Court jury has found Vesel Jahiri guilty of the murder of his former partner and mother of their two children.

Jahiri stabbed Anna Finnegan to death in her own home a month after she had sought refuge at a women's shelter.

Ms Finnegan wrote that Jahiri made her life “hell”, and had beaten her and “almost killed her”. They had been together since she was 16 years old.

Jurors also found Jahiri guilty of stabbing her brother Karl Finnegan to the chest and head during the same attack.

Jahiri was representing himself at his own trial and was removed from the court on several occasions, the latest coming after he punched the prosecuting barrister in the face and was wrestled to the ground by prison officers.

On Wednesday, before the verdicts were read out, Jahiri was brought into court accompanied by four prison officers dressed in full riot gear. He was handcuffed and two of these prison officers sat next to him in the dock.

As the jury came into court to deliver their verdict Jahiri began to shout: “Jurors I found the 999 call.”

A jury which had been reduced to eight men and two women found Jahiri guilty by unanimous verdict of murdering Anna Finnegan at Allendale Glen, Clonsilla, Dublin 15 on September 21st, 2012. They had deliberated for six hours and 43 minutes.

They also found him guilty by unanimous verdict of assaulting Karl Finnegan, causing him harm at the same place on the same date

The judge then had Jahiri removed from court as he was shouting.

Jahiri (35), originally from Kosovo but of no fixed abode, had pleaded not guilty to both charges.

When Jahiri left the courtroom Mr Justice Paul Coffey said that he had to exclude him as he was disturbing the process of the court but he would bring him back into court after a sentence date was set.

Following the verdicts, Mr Justice Coffey thanked the jury for their time and exempted them from jury service for life.

“Thank you for the great care and fastidious attention you have given to this long and difficult case,” he said.

The court adjourned sentencing until May 8th.

Jahiri was then brought back into court by the riot police and the judge told him that his sentence date was fixed for then. Addressing Jahiri, Mr Justice Coffey said: “You are entitled to free legal aid and entitled to instruct lawyers but it is entirely a matter for you.”

Jahiri then started to shout: “What you mean sentence, what conviction, what am I convicted for?”

Mr Justice Coffey remanded Jahiri in custody until that date when two victim impact statements will be before the court.

During the eight week trial, Janice O’Neill, a friend of Ms Finnegan’s, told the court that Anna called to her house after midday on September 21st with her two children. She said that Anna made a phone call to Jahiri at 6pm and put her phone on loudspeaker so Ms O’Neill could hear the conversation.

Ms O’Neill said she heard Jahiri threaten Anna on the phone call, just hours before she died, saying:“I know where you fucking are, I’ll come and kill yous [Sic].”

The older brother of the deceased, Karl Finnegan, said his sister’s relationship with Jahiri ended at the end of August, 2012 with Anna moving to Bray Women’s Refuge. He said a social worker had put a safety plan in place and he was staying in Anna’s house temporarily for that reason.

Mr Finnegan said he got to his sister’s house at Allendale Glen around 7.30pm on September 21st and Anna then arrived home with her children. The witness testified that he and his sister were sitting at the kitchen table when they heard a “loud bang” as the front door of the house was being forced in. He looked up and saw Jahiri coming down the hall with a knife. Anna screamed and stood up from the table.

Mr Finnegan said he picked up a chair to “keep a bit of distance” between him and Jahiri but the chair was then “gone” and he did not know how that happened. Mr Finnegan said he then blacked out and awoke with stab wounds.

The court heard Mr Finnegan received two stab wounds, one to his chest and the other to the right side of his head.

Joan Broe testified that she was walking her dog in the Allendale Glen estate at 8.30pm on September 21st when she heard Anna Finnegan screaming: “Help us, somebody help us.”

The witness said she then saw Anna Finnegan, Jahiri and Karl Finnegan in the driveway of the house next door. She said Ms Finnegan was screaming into Mr Jahiri’s face saying: “Leave him alone.”

She said she saw Jahiri chase his former partner, bring her to the ground and punch her to her right hand side.

The jury viewed CCTV footage of Jahiri driving his car at speed up to the doors of the Accident and Emergency Department at James Connolly Memorial Hospital at 8.50pm on September 21st. Jahiri lifted Anna Finnegan out of the back seat of the car and left her on the ground before security personnel arrive and lifted her onto a trolley.

Korill Allen, a security officer attached to the hospital, said as he was in the process of lifting Ms Finnegan onto a trolley, she pointed at Jahiri and said: “He did it.”

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis told the jury that Anna Finnegan died from a single stab wound to the chest.

The trial also heard that Anna Finnegan wrote a letter to her former partner where she stated that he had beaten her, made her life “hell” and had almost killed her a few times. The three-paged letter, which was never sent to Jahiri, was found in a handbag which was located in the kitchen of Allendale Glen on September 23rd.

Anna Finnegan also sent text messages to Jahiri saying she did not want to see him again and wanted to feel “safe without some animal beating and bullying” her. The mother-of-two called him “a control freak”.

Just two weeks into the trial Jahiri, a mechanic by trade, dismissed his legal team. During the trial Jahiri alleged that gardai were engaged in “collusion” with witnesses and evidence had been tampered with.

Last month, the judge told Jahiri that he was “throwing out allegations” at witnesses “like confetti” and proceeded to exclude Jahiri from court because he was not abiding by correct procedure.

In his charge to the jury on Monday, Mr Justice Coffey said they must put the fact that Jahiri punched the prosecuting barrister in the face out of their minds when considering their verdict.

Last Friday as the trial was reaching its closing stages, Jahiri punched Patrick Marrinan SC in the face. The accused then leapt across the court benches before he was wrestled to the ground by five prison officers.

Mr Justice Paul Coffey later told the jury that the accused had been removed from the court and he then proceeded to charge the jury in his absence.

This was Jahiri’s second trial for murdering Anna Finnegan after a jury failed to reach a verdict in his first trial in 2014. They had deliberated for more then 10 hours over three days.

At the time, the foreman of the jury told Mr Justice Paul McDermott that they had disagreed on both counts and he did not believe that further time would allow them to reach an agreement.

Jahiri failed to turn up for the final days of his first trial and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.