A LIMERICK man has been found guilty of murdering a man on his 40th birthday in a case of mistaken identity.
Jonathan Fitzgerald (21), South Claughan Road, Garryowen, shot and killed Noel Crawford on December 18th, 2006, as he stood outside his parents’ home in O’Malley Park, Southill. Fitzgerald had denied the murder during a four-week trial at the Central Criminal Court.
It is understood Fitzgerald had meant to shoot the victim’s brother, Paul Crawford, who had left his brother’s side momentarily to answer his mobile phone.
The trial heard that Fitzgerald’s sister, Jennifer, had been kidnapped hours before the killing and that the defendant believed that Paul Crawford was involved.
The chief prosecution witness, Laura Kelly, testified via a live television link from Westminster Court in London. She said that the defendant and a man called Michael O’Callaghan came to her home in O’Malley Park shortly after 2am on that date. She said she heard them planning an attack on a house, that they made a petrol bomb and were wearing bullet-proof vests when they left. She did not approve and had asked them to leave, she said.
She said that she then heard gunshots before both men returned to her house, banging on her door and “kind of jumping”.
“Jonathan Fitzgerald said: ‘I got him. I got him. I got Paul Crawford’,” she testified.
The court heard that Ms Kelly’s windows were shot in about an hour after the killing. Fitzgerald and O’Callaghan then left but returned while Ms Kelly was sleeping and were there when gardaí arrived at 7.50am.
Fitzgerald instructed Ms Kelly and her partner, Jonathon Kiely, to say that they had come after 4am. They were threatened and initially lied. However, Mr Kiely told the truth a month later and Ms Kelly two years later, after she had moved out of Limerick.
The defence said that Paul Crawford was a hunted man, who was well used to people shooting at him. The defence argued that it was someone else who fired the shot. In his charge, Mr Justice Barry White told the jury to forget the question of who the intended victim was. “Mistaken identity or shooting at one individual, missing and hitting another, does not absolve someone from responsibility.”
The jury of five women and seven men reached a majority verdict of 11 to one after three hours and 17 minutes. The judge adjourned imposing the mandatory life sentence until tomorrow when he will also sentence Fitzgerald’s co-accused. Michael O’Callaghan had pleaded guilty to Mr Crawford’s manslaughter, something the jury was told only after reaching its verdict.