A man who broke into a fellow hostel resident's room dressed in a balaclava and armed with a knife before telling gardaí he wanted to kill the victim "stone dead" has been convicted of murder, after failing to convince a jury of his lack of intent.
The jury, who also heard that Robert Murphy told gardaí “I did him with his own weapons”, rejected the defence case that he had only entered the deceased’s room in order to “frighten”, but not kill him.
The 12 jurors at the Central Criminal Court deliberated for close to five hours before returning the unanimous verdict against Murphy (42), who was found guilty of the murder of 24-year-old Jamie Kavanagh at a hostel on Harrington Street, Dublin 8 on April 19th, 2023.
Murphy had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Kavanagh.
At the opening of the prosecution’s case, Paul Greene SC said that Jamie Kavanagh lived in a bedsit on Harrington Street which was run by a hostel and a charity called 'Crosscare'. Mr Kavanagh was on the first floor and Murphy lived next door to him.
The barrister said that many people living in the premises were "on the margins" and on State aid.
The jury previously heard that the incident had occurred in the "small hours" of the morning of April 19th, when Mr Kavanagh was in his room at the hostel.
Witness Carrie Benn, who had been living at the hostel with Mr Kavanagh and Murphy at the time, made the initial call to emergency services when she discovered that Mr Kavanagh had been stabbed.
Ms Benn told the court that she had a conversation with Murphy after the stabbing. She said: “He was just shouting at me to hang up the phone, in a mad way, not to bring the ambulance or guards around.”
Mr Greene said gardaí arrived at the hostel about 4:40am that morning when Murphy was still in the premises. Murphy was observed by gardaí leaving the house with a dog and carrying an 'Under Armour' bag.
He was followed down Harrington Street by gardaí before he was stopped. Murphy had allowed officers to look inside the bag, where two large knives, part of a garden shears, a balaclava, some blood-stained clothing and a mobile phone were found.
The jury heard that gardaí had not only taken possession of the 'Under Armour' bag, but they also found another bag containing clothing on Synge Lane.
Detective Garda Eve Rochfort, who was attached to Kevin Street Garda Station at the time, told Mr Greene that Murphy had informed her: “Yeah look, I done that, I’ll tell youse what happened”.
“I was actually going for his neck, I wanted to get him in the neck.
“I’m sick of his carry on.”
According to Garda Rochfort, Murphy continued: "I hope he was taken out in coroners' bags.
"I did him with his own weapons."
The trial heard that Mr Kavanagh was assisted by emergency services at the hostel but died at 5:26am.
Murphy was also discovered to have €750 in cash on his person. Amber Smith gave evidence that she and her partner Jamie Kavanagh had planned to move to Spain together, with the deceased securing a loan of “probably over €900” from family members to begin their new life.
State pathologist Dr Sally Anne Collis conducted the postmortem examination on the deceased and found seven injuries from sharp objects; four of those were stab wounds and three were incisions.
Mr Collis said each of these wounds had inflicted an injury, but the fatal hit left a 13cm wound on his left flank, causing Mr Kavanagh’s death.
Garda Matthew O’Connor, attached to Kevin Street Garda Station, told Mr Greene that he was working the night shift and was on duty at 5:10am when Robert Murphy was brought in as a prisoner.
'I wanted to kill him stone dead'
While in custody, Garda O’Connor said that he heard Robert Murphy tell the station jailer: “I wanted to kill him stone dead. He deserved to die and somebody had to do something”.
It was the prosecution case that what Murphy said amounted to an admission of responsibility for the unlawful death in circumstances where he intended to cause death or serious injury.
In his closing address to the jury, defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC said that Murphy entered Mr Kavanagh’s room dressed in a balaclava and armed with a butter knife in order to “frighten” but not to kill him.
He said that Murphy only intended to scare Mr Kavanagh, and if he had intended to kill he would have armed himself with more than a butter knife, with the defendant believing that Mr Kavanagh kept knives and half of a garden shears in his room.
After his arrest, Murphy told gardaí that the small blade he brought into the room with him had broken, and he picked up another knife when Jamie Kavanagh "came at him".
Mr Grehan said that this small knife could not have caused the fatal blow to Mr Kavanagh. Counsel said the killing wound to the left flank, which was 13cm in length, was caused by one of Mr Kavanagh’s longer black knives.
The defence said that the stabbing was a badly executed effort by Murphy to get Mr Kavanagh out of the house.
They also said that Murphy had no realisation that the injury was as serious as it was, and the prosecution had not proved that Murphy was not acting in what he believed was self defence.
Closing the case for the prosecution, Mr Greene told the jury that in an interview with gardaí on the day of the stabbing, Murphy said that he entered Jamie Kavanagh’s room because the music was too loud.
Counsel said the accused said he wanted to clean up Harrington Street, he was collecting knives from the house, he was making the place safe and this was the last step he had taken to make the hostel safe.
Mr Greene said Murphy then told gardaí that when he attacked Mr Kavanagh, he wanted to hold him down for “the fat f**k to bleed out”.
The prosecution pointed to the fact that Robert Murphy “secreted” items in advance of the stabbing and removed items such as bloody clothes and knives from the scene after.
Mr Greene said that all mentions of activities such as drug use and knives in the house were just red herrings in the case and what mattered was Murphy’s honest intention.
After the jury of seven men and five women returned their verdict, Ms Justice Melanie Greally thanked them for their time and attention during the trial, excusing them from jury service for the next ten years.
The matter was adjourned to December 16th for victim impact statements and sentencing, with Murphy remanded in custody.
