The sister of a mum-of-two who died from a stab wound has described to a murder trial how she punched the man accused of her murder after the witness said he smirked at her outside a hospital resuscitation room.
Another sister also told the jury on Wednesday that when she arrived at the hospital, she saw the accused laughing and smirking as if nothing was wrong.
Martin Hayes (34), with an address at Poddle Close, Crumlin, Dublin 12 has pleaded not guilty to murdering mother-of-two Amadea McDermott (27) at her home in Rathvale Drive, Ayrfield, Coolock on or about July 20th, 2017.
Ms McDermott's sister, Eucharia McDermott told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, that Amadea was one of eight children and the family home was in Coolock. She said Amadea had two children who were then aged seven and four and described them as her sister's world and main focus.
Asked about the events of July 19th, the witness said she stopped texting Amadea around 9.30pm before she went to bed.
She had a missed call from Amadea's phone later that night but when she went to answer it the call had ended. "As I was ringing her back, my [other] sister who was downstairs was shouting 'quick, quick, it's Amadea, she has gone into cardiac arrest'," she said.
The witness, who was still in her pyjamas, put on her runners and ran up the road to Amadea's apartment as she "needed to get to her as quickly as I could". She got into her other sister Euphrasia's car along the way but jumped out of the moving vehicle when she arrived at the apartment.
Ms McDermott said Mr Hayes was sitting on a bed when she arrived, and she was panicking and shouting "where is she, where is she".
The witness could see paramedics working on Amadea in a room, but she wasn't allowed in.
Ms McDermott said she learned her sister had suffered a stab wound to the abdomen. She said she also informed Garda Jason Flynn about "the domestic abuse" in the relationship. She remarked to the jury that it was the "worst day of my life".
When doctors in Beaumont Hospital later told Ms McDermott that Amadea had passed away, the witness said she felt like she couldn't breathe and had to get out of the resuscitation room. She saw the accused at the door and said to him "you shouldn't be here".
"He was smirking at me, he said 'shut up you thick' and with that I punched him, and he punched me directly back," she said.
Asked by Mr Gillane about the state of the living room in the apartment, the witness said it was a mess and there was glass and clothes on the floor. She took three phones from her sister's apartment on the day after the incident and gave them to gardai when they called to her home in November 2019.
Cross-examination
Under cross-examination, Ms McDermott told Ronan Munro SC, defending, that when alcohol was involved there would be "screaming matches" between the couple.
The witness agreed that her objective when she made a statement to gardaí was to let them know that her sister's relationship was "full of conflict".
Another sister of the deceased, Euphrasia McDermott, said that Amadea was her best friend, and they did everything together.
Ms McDermott said she got a call from the accused in the early hours of July 20th when she was in bed, and he said: "It's Amadea, you better come, it's a cardiac arrest". The witness said she had got a call from her other sister Eucharia to tell her that Amadea had passed away and when she got into the hospital she saw the accused laughing and smirking as if nothing was wrong.
Ms McDermott told Mr Munro in cross-examination that she had collected the accused and Amadea from a party in 2016 and she had to stop the car as they were arguing the whole time. She told the jury that she knew the couple drank but never knew anything about her sister taking drugs.
Asked if Amadea had seemed depressed to her a week before her death, Ms McDermott said her sister was planning for the future so there was "no sign of anything like that".
Garda Jason Flynn told Mr Gillane that he and his colleague responded to a call at Rathvale Drive around 1.10am on the morning of July 20th, where he was told by medical personnel that Ms McDermott had a puncture wound to the stomach and the prognosis was not good.
Gda Flynn said he dealt with Mr Hayes in a bedroom in the apartment and asked him what had happened. The accused told the witness that he and Ms McDermott had drunk vodka throughout the night and taken around three grams of cocaine.
"Once the cocaine ran out, he stated that she became agitated and an argument ensued, and he went to a bedroom to remove himself from the argument," said the garda.
Mr Hayes told Gda Flynn that the couple had a tempestuous relationship, that it wasn't the first time they had a heated argument and said it wasn't unusual for this to happen.
Rumbling sound
The accused also told the witness that after a few minutes Ms McDermott came into the bedroom with a knife and said she was going to kill herself. "He said this was not the first time this had happened, and he did not believe she would carry it out," the witness continued.
Mr Hayes further told the garda that a few minutes later he heard a rumbling sound and went to the living area where he found his girlfriend with a puncture wound in the abdomen.
The accused said he rang 999 for an ambulance and that the operator had told him to put pressure on the wound, which he did using a towel.
Gda Flynn said the accused was visibly intoxicated and still under the influence of the drink and drugs he had consumed earlier that night. "His eyes were wide and his speech wasn't concise," added the witness.
The garda said the accused's hands were clean with "no red marks" on them "whatsoever" but there were "red marks" on his socks.
Gda Flynn said he spoke to the deceased's sister Eucharia McDermott at the top of the stairs, who alleged that Mr Hayes had been physically abusive to Amadea in the past.
The garda said he asked Mr Hayes to go to Coolock Garda Station to give a statement. However, after a few minutes in the station, the accused wanted to visit Ms McDermott in Beaumont Hospital so he was brought there.
The witness spoke to a doctor in Beaumont Hospital and learned that Ms McDermott had passed away. Gda Flynn said he had noticed an altercation between Mr Hayes and Eucharia McDermott in the hospital and that his colleague was involved in separating them.
In his opening address, Mr Gillane said the accused and Ms McDermott's relationship was "difficult, volatile and abusive". "It was a relationship where there was some degree of violence..... that doesn't make anyone guilty of a particular offence but is the context in which the relationship has to be understood," he added.
The court has heard that Mr Hayes was working as a grave digger in Mount Jerome cemetery in Harold's Cross at the time of Ms McDermott's death.
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of eight men and four women.
