Jury finds man guilty of killing friend
A young Dublin man has been found guilty of killing his friend during an argument in Irishtown last year.
The jury at the Central Criminal Court took four hours to reach a unanimous verdict, finding Mark Green (aged 20), Tritonville Rd, Sandymount, Dublin 4, not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of Alan Young (aged 19), George Reynolds House, Ringsend, at or near Bremen Rd, Irishtown, Dublin on March 11, last year.
Mr Young was found near Irishtown sports stadium with a stab wound in his chest.
During the seven-day trial, the court heard that Mark Green and Alan Young had been friends for most of their lives but that tensions developed between them over the weekend of the killing.
On the Saturday night, Green was in friend David McKeever’s house before leaving to drink a pint at the Irishtown House pub.
Alan Young was there with friend Eoin Deeney.
The court heard that Green was “slapped in the face” by Alan and that he left the pub, returning to McKeever’s house, where he told his friend David that he was annoyed and “sick of everybody starting on him in Ringsend.”
Afterward, McKeever took Green’s new moped for a drive on the green outside. Green watched from the front door of the house.
Meanwhile, Alan Young and a number of others had been drinking in a nearby laneway known as ‘the Drain’.
The jury was told that Alan heard the moped crash as McKeever came off it. Alan ran towards the moped. Others followed, including Eoin Deeney and Erika Nangle, who was Alan’s niece and Green’s ex-girlfriend.
Alan and Eoin drove the moped towards Green. When Alan got off the moped, he began to punch and kick him.
Erika Nangle also kicked Green.
The court heard that he didn’t fight back.
David McKeever told the jury that Green was “a softie” and was “always getting picked on.”
He said that Alan was going to take Green’s moped but that he took the keys out. He told the jury that the moped was smashed and kicked.
The court head that Green’s face was bloodied. He returned to McKeever's house and took a knife from the countertop in the kitchen, concealing it in his front right pocket.
He went back outside. Alan had returned to ‘the Drain’ and McKeever was talking to Erika Nangle.
The jury heard that Green told them Alan’s life “wouldn’t be worth living.” Erika Nangle then rang her uncle and told him that Green was looking for a fight. Green shouted that he said no such thing.
Alan returned to the scene and there was another altercation between him and Green a few yards away from the others.
Witnesses told the court that they saw Alan turn toward them, holding his hand to the left side of his chest and saying: “He’s after stabbing me.”
Green was seen standing there with a knife in his hand before he ran back toward McKeever’s house.
Alan had received one stab wound to the left side of the chest. He died shortly after.
The court heard that Green approached Gardaí shortly afterward and told them that he was responsible for the stabbing.
A recording of interviews conducted between Gardaí and Green at Donnybrook Garda Station in the hours after the killing was shown to the jury.
Green was seen telling gardaí that he “didn’t mean it to happen.”
He said: “Sticking a blade into someone, I never thought I’d be capable of doing that.”
The video showed Gardaí asking Green why he tried to attract their attention after the killing and Green telling them: “Because I knew I’d done something wrong and cause I wouldn’t know how to live with it if I didn’t say anything.”
It was the defence team’s case that Alan Young’s death was the result of “two friends who fought over something stupid” and that it was a “tragedy but not a murder.”
Mr Justice Paul Carney remanded Green on bail until sentencing on June 3, and said that he will also receive victim impact evidence on that day.
