A FORMER Las Vegas poker dealer has lost his appeal against the severity of a six-year jail sentence handed down to him for demanding money with menace.
The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday rejected a bid by Essam Eid, an Egyptian national with an address in Nevada, US, to have his sentence reduced, finding the term could not be considered too severe, given the serious nature of the offence.
Eid (54) was jailed in October 2008 after being found guilty of demanding €100,000 from Robert Howard in Ennis, Co Clare, on September 26th, 2006, in exchange for not killing him, his brother Niall and their father PJ Howard.
He was also found guilty of handling items stolen from the Howard family business the previous night.
Earlier, the three-judge court reserved judgment in an appeal brought by Eid’s co-accused, Clare woman Sharon Collins, against her conviction for soliciting a hitman to murder her partner Mr Howard and his two sons in 2006.
Tom O’Connell, for the DPP, told the appeal court of “an abundance” of material provided to the jury in the trial to allow it to “draw the conclusion” that Sharon Collins, as Lyingeyes98_at_yahoo.ie, solicited Essam Eid, as Tony Luciano, hitman for hire, to murder the three Howards.
The appeal court, with Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan presiding, sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe, indicated there would be “some delay” in giving a judgment and that it may not be delivered until the next legal term.
Collins, a mother of two, was also found guilty of three counts of conspiring to kill the men. However, at the opening of the two-day appeal hearing on Thursday, the State conceded it was not possible to “stand over” her conviction in respect of these counts, as it was “logically unsustainable”.
David Sutton SC for Eid, argued yesterday that this was “about as unusual” a case as had ever been heard in the State, “coming from the souks of Cairo, to the gaming halls of Vegas via the Queen’s Hotel in Ennis”.
The court heard that on September 26th, 2006, Eid rang Robert Howard posing as Tony Luciano, and told him he had heard the Howards were missing some computers, and that he would be at the house in five minutes.
He told Robert Howard there was a contract out on the lives of himself (Howard), his brother and his father and offered him the chance to buy himself and his family out of the contract for €100,000.
Lawyers for Eid said there was an “element of slight absurdity” that “an eccentric middle-aged man” like their client could be considered menacing in this context.
The appeal, the court heard, hinged mainly on “an error of principle”, in that Eid was given the same sentence as that handed down to Sharon Collins.
The court was told Eid had difficulty integrating into prison life, that he was in poor health, living with a pacemaker, and had lost everything, including “his wives”.
Mr Sutton said there were “no guns” and “no dead bodies” and that the incident for which his client was found guilty was over in “24 hours”.
Eid, who has no previous convictions, has already served the bulk of his sentence and, with good behaviour, is likely to be released in March 2011.
The State opposed the appeal. Counsel for the DPP, Úna Ní Raifeartaigh, urged the court to consider the “gravity of the offence” and the fact the Howards “were genuinely frightened”.
Refusing the appeal yesterday, the court held that while Eid could be described as an “incompetent and unprofessional” criminal, the incident “must have been very upsetting” for the two brothers.