Murder accused identified murder weapon, court hears
A 28-year-old Limerick man identified a knife to gardai as the one he used to stab another man with in a park in the city in 1999.
Giving evidence at the trial of Mr Robert McNamara at the Central Criminal Court, Det Garda James Carroll told the jury that acting upon information from the accused, the gardai recovered the weapon.
"He explained he'd thrown it from the back door of his mother's house in the direction of the garden next door," the witness told Mr Andrew Bradley SC for the prosecution.
Mr McNamara of Clarina Park, Ballinacurra, Westin, Limerick denies murdering Mr Brendan O'Connell (aged 22) on 16 December 1999 at the People's Park, Limerick. The victim, of Hillview Grove, Doon, Co Limerick died from a single stab wound to the heart.
When an initial search of the area in question failed to recover the weapon, gardai preserved the scene and the knife was subsequently recovered by daylight.
Det Garda Carroll said that he showed the knife to the accused at Roxboro Garda Station and asked him if he recognised it. "I do, yeah," Mr McNamara replied. When asked if it was the knife used to stab Mr O'Connell in the park he said, "yes, it is".
The jury heard evidence that the knife was identified by the deceased's sister as a brown-handled steak knife that had been missing from her home since the day of the killing.
Prosecution evidence in the trial has now concluded and the defence is due to begin their case tomorrow before Mr Justice Henry Abbot.
