A Kinahan cartel associate who took part in a "revenge" murder conspiracy and was “haunted” by the belief he was the intended target of a gunman in drag who mistakenly killed his innocent friend, has been jailed for 11 years by the Special Criminal Court.
Jason ‘Jay’ O’Connor (46) of Whitestown Grove in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, had been accused of the attempted murder of Charlie Cooper at Parslickstown Green, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15, on December 5th 2016, but pleaded guilty in May to the reduced charge of conspiracy to murder, which the State accepted.
Sentencing O’Connor at the non-jury court on Monday, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the defendant was a “fortunate man” because he could have been facing a life sentence had Mr Cooper not survived the shooting.
O’Connor, who has 70 previous convictions, also pleaded guilty to the charge that he did between August 2nd 2016, and December 7th 2016, both dates inclusive, within the State and with knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation, participate in, or contribute to, activity intending to or being reckless as to whether such participation or contribution could, facilitate the commission of a serious offence by that criminal organisation or any of its member, to wit: murder.
Mr Cooper was seriously injured when he was shot multiple times at his home. However, he was treated in intensive care for his wounds and made a recovery.
Imposing sentence, Mr Justice Hunt said these charges sprang out of the death of Keith Walker in what appeared to have been an “unfortunate case of mistaken identity”.
Keith Walker was a friend of O’Connor’s who was murdered at a pigeon-racing event in 2015. O’Connor believed that he was the intended target, as Mr Walker was driving O’Connor’s car at the time.
“It appears what happened subsequently was a revenge-type attack arising out of that,” said the judge.
“Fortunately, Mr Cooper made a full recovery. He must be a very fortunate man and that makes Mr O’Connor an equally fortunate man because he could have been facing a life sentence if matters had ended up differently.”
Mr Justice Hunt set a headline sentence of 15 years in respect of the Section 72 facilitation offence. He suspended the final four years of the sentence having regard to mitigating factors in the case, including O’Connor’s guilty plea.
Conspiracy to murder
He imposed a sentence of seven years for the conspiracy to murder charge, with both sentences to run concurrently.
At a previous hearing, Detective Garda Inspector Liam Donoghue named the organisation that O'Connor admitted helping as the Kinahan crime group.
The court was told O’Connor conspired with “persons unknown” in the plot to murder Mr Cooper and that 10 shots were fired in the attempt on Cooper’s life in the kitchen of his Parslickstown home in December 2016.
During the course of the investigation, searches of addresses yielded electronic devices of interest to gardaí, including an encrypted Blackberry phone located at O’Connor’s home.
Det Insp Donoghue told the court that in October 2016 O’Connor messaged an associate saying that he “just wanted to feel normal” and that the “Walker death broke me”.
Christopher McDonald (then 34), from the East Wall area, was found guilty by unanimous verdict at the Central Criminal Court in 2017 and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Mr Walker (36), at the Blanchardstown Pigeon Racing Club car park on Shelerin Road, Clonsilla, on June 12th, 2015.
That trial was shown CCTV footage of McDonald, dressed in drag, waiting to carry out the hit. Several witnesses said they saw a man dressed in women's gym clothes in the area, carrying a handbag and wearing a long black wig.
O’Connor had messaged his associate in the aftermath of Mr Walker’s death: “I have a target. Need to show these junkies now. Anyone involved has to go. Eye for an eye.”
The court heard of exchanges between O’Connor and his associate discussing the need for tracker devices and silencers for various operations concerning “targets”.
One exchange records O’Connor saying, “I’m up for it”, regarding an operation described by his associate as a “suicide mission”.
Gardaí from Blanchardstown also recovered other messages from the encrypted device referring to other operations with ongoing conversations about gun silencers, trackers, named targets and their movements.
Before imposing sentence, Mr Justice Hunt noted it had only been possible to access messages on the devices thanks to recent advances in technology.
Serious organisations
He described the Kinahan Organised Crime Group as one of the most serious organisations in the State and noted the damage caused by it had been referenced many times in the Special Criminal Court.
He said the court had considered “very carefully” whether consecutive sentences should be imposed because of the “very serious” offending involved, including the level of wrongdoing and the group being assisted by this activity.
However, he said in light of O’Connor’s guilty plea, the court had decided to “refrain from going down that road”.
The judge said there was also evidence that prior to this matter coming to light, the defendant had taken some “early steps” towards “reform and rehabilitation”.
“This is something we must encourage and incentivise,” he said.
Mr Justice Hunt said the court would take a “global view” of the offending and of O’Connor’s previous convictions and would set a pre-mitigation headline sentence of 15 years.
He said the court would suspend the final four years of the sentence and would impose a concurrent seven-year sentence on the conspiracy charge, backdated to August 31st, 2023 when O’Connor went into custody.
O’Connor has 70 previous convictions including those for assault, burglary and possession of a mobile phone in prison, with the majority of the remaining convictions relating to road traffic offences.
At a sentencing hearing in July, Michael Bowman SC, for O'Connor, said the death of Mr Walker “haunted” his client into paranoia and psychosis and that in 2016 the defendant was “mentally very unwell and suicidal".
Mr Bowman said O’Connor, a father of four and a grandfather of one, had required psychiatric treatment and was on antipsychotic medication after Mr Walker’s shooting.
Mr Bowman said O’Connor was “a realist”, who accepted he was facing a “lengthy sanction”.
Counsel said O’Connor’s actions were “directly related” to the death of Mr Walker and that O’Connor had since disassociated himself with individuals involved in criminality.
He said O’Connor had made "a significant turning of the page" and that his client was capable of making a positive contribution to his family and society.
