Man shot neighbour over 'threats to family'
The Central Criminal Court has heard that a man on trial for murder told gardaí he shot his neighbour four times because he had been “making threats about cutting up my wife and kids.”
During interviews with detectives, Brendan O'Sullivan told them that 27 year old Leslie Kenny had threatened to put shots through his back door, put petrol in his letterbox and “cut my wife and cut my kids' throats.”
The 25-year-old father of two, of O'Gorman Street, Kilrush in Clare, has denied murdering Mr Kenny on July 29, 2009. He also denied that he obtained a shotgun for protection when his neighbour began making threats.
Mr Kenny, who lived with his girlfriend a few doors down from O'Sullivan, died almost instantly in O'Sullivan's front garden after he was shot in the chest, hip and through both knees.
State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the trial that Mr Kenny had very little chance of survival unless there had been immediate medical intervention.
She said the first two shots had been fired at close range, while the shots to the knees were most likely inflicted while Mr Kenny was lying on the ground.
Following his arrest, O'Sullivan told gardaí he decided to confront Mr Kenny about the “non-stop threats” when he saw him across the road on the morning in question.
The 26-year-old said he stood up on his garden bench and shouted at Mr Kenny, demanding to know why he had threatened to use a seven-shooter on his house.
O'Sullivan said his neighbour replied “I'll have 7 shots waiting for you” and after a number of interviews, he admitted to gardaí that he threatened him back, saying: “If you shoot me with your 7 shot, you'll be getting shot back.”
He said Mr Kenny began to walk towards the house and his wife, Claire, started screaming “he's going to kill us.”
“All I could think was my wife and kids would be killed” O'Sullivan said, he then ran upstairs and got a shotgun and loaded it.
When he returned to the door, Mr Kenny was at his garden and he shot twice at him.
“I didn't mean to hit him, they were just warning shots” he said.
The first two shots hit Mr Kenny in the right chest and right hip, but O'Sullivan said he didn't realise this because he got up again “with evil-looking eyes” and started coming towards him.
“I re-loaded and put one in each leg” O'Sullivan said.
In subsequent interviews, he admitted that he fired the final shot at Mr Kenny's knee when he was lying injured on the ground.
“If I wanted to kill him I would have shot him in the head, I just wanted to scare him off.”
O'Sullivan said he told his wife to ring an ambulance. While he was waiting for gardaí to arrive he said he had to “sit down on the front bench and watch that man die.”
He denied that he had got the shotgun to protect his family, saying he was minding it for his cousin because she was afraid her ex-husband was going to use it to shoot himself.
O'Sullivan also denied he and his cousin had decided to teach Mr Kenny a lesson after her car was burnt out, and she suspected Mr Kenny of doing it.
“You decided to take the gun and give Leslie a good fright," gardaí put to him, saying he saw his chance to do this on the morning in question. O'Sullivan denied this.
He also denied the gun had been kept loaded, saying he only loaded it before Mr Kenny arrived at his garden.
“I didn't intend to do this, I was trying to protect my family” he said.
O'Sullivan told gardaí that the trouble had started with Mr Kenny when he robbed his mother's purse containing money she had been saving for a holiday.
O'Sullivan's stepmother, Susan O'Sullivan, also gave evidence in court that Mr Kenny had hit her into the face when his arm was in a cast, because she refused to give him her prescription medicine.
The trial resumes tomorrow.
