Two men accused of murdering 22-year-old Mahamud Ilyas in a dispute over drugs told gardaí that they defended themselves after Mr Ilyas came running into an apartment with a weapon and threatened to kill them.
"He was threatening us and telling us he’d stab us in the neck, he went for us with a crowbar," Viorel Doroscan (23) told gardaí, while his co-accused, Otniel Richardo Clejan (24) gave a statement to gardaí in which he said that he defended himself by "once striking and pushing" away Mr Ilyas.
Mr Ilyas died from blunt force trauma to the head, with Assistant State pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster telling the jury that the deceased sustained depressed fractures to his head which were "typical of hammer blows". It is the State’s case that Mr Doroscan and Mr Clejan were involved in the sale and supply of drugs, and they allegedly beat Mr Ilyas to death after a row over a stolen bag of cannabis.
Mr Doroscan, of Bay Meadows Square, Hollystown, West Dublin, and Mr Clejan, with a former address at Verdemont in Blanchardstown in Dublin 15, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ilyas on December 9, 2022.
The jury at the Central Criminal Court today heard extracts from Mr Doroscan's interviews with gardaí, which were read out by counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Jane Murphy BL. In the interviews, Mr Doroscan told gardaí that he was in a friend’s home on the day when Mr Ilyas "sprinted into the house and started screaming: 'Yous are dead'." He said that Mr Ilyas was wearing a mask and threatening that "he’d stab us in the neck".
"He went for us with a crowbar, and Richardo hit him with a hammer on the side or back of the head," said Mr Doroscan, going on to say that "Mo fought back".
"He said: ‘I’m going to stab you in the neck’," the accused told gardaí. He said that Mr Ilyas went to hit Mr Clejan with a crowbar, but Mr Clejan pushed him onto the ground after hitting him with a hammer. Mr Doroscan said he kicked Mr Ilyas in the face to take a weapon out of his hand, before Mr Ilyas put a hand into his pocket and took out a hammer.
"I hit him in the face with my foot and took the hammer off him and threw it away," he said.
The accused told gardaí that another man present in the house tied Mr Ilyas up and put him on the sofa, while Mr Ilyas was praying and saying: "Yous are dead."
Mr Doroscan said that Mr Clejan called a third man, co-accused Lorenzo Cantaragiu (21), who arrived with his car. He said they put Mr Ilyas into the car and drove to a field beside Hollystown, where they took Mr Ilyas out of the car.
"I took the ropes off him and left him there," said Mr Doroscan, adding that he put "like a blanket" beside Mr Ilyas.
"Mo was breathing okay but still threatening us," he said, telling gardaí that "this guy was 100 per cent alive".
The accused went on to deny that there was any issue between him and Mr Ilyas concerning drug dealing. He told gardaí that he left Mr Ilyas "in shelter underneath some trees" and "he was screaming all the way through".
The jury heard that in his interview with gardaí, Mr Clejan said that he was unaware that Mr Ilyas was coming to the apartment that day.
"He came into the apartment armed and threatened to kill me. I defended myself by once striking and pushing him away. I did not cause multiple blows or cause his death, I did not stand over him with a hammer," said Mr Clejan.
The jury also heard that in his garda interview, Mr Cantaragiu said that he drove Mr Doroscan and Mr Clejan to an area in Hollystown where "they took the body out".
Ms Murphy read out the transcript of Mr Cantaragiu’s interview with gardaí, in which Mr Cantaragiu said: "That’s the last time I seen them with him. I last seen him when he was headfirst in the ditch and I helped him up. He was breathing, because I heard his gasps. I left after that and never went back after that."
Mr Cantaragiu also told gardaí that when he was in the car, he heard Mr Ilyas "shivering, like chattering teeth".
"I heard a few moans, like he could feel the pain," said Mr Cantaragiu, confirming that Mr Ilyas was still alive at that point. He said that when he tried to pull Mr Ilyas out of the ditch, My Ilyas was face down with his elbows up.
"I think he was conscious. He gasped when he went into the water," said Mr Cantaragiu.
Mr Cantaragiu, of Castlegrange Park, Blanchardstown, faces various charges of impeding the prosecution or apprehension of Mr Clejan and Mr Doroscan, by committing various acts while knowing or believing them to have committed the offence of causing serious harm to Mr Ilyas. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
At the opening of the trial, counsel for the DPP Eoin Lawlor SC said that on December 8, 2022, a house at Verdemont in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 was being used to store cannabis. That evening Mr Ilyas called to the house and was seen leaving carrying a shopping bag containing cannabis. Mr Lawlor said Mr Ilyas "wasn’t supposed to" take the cannabis and then tried to sell it to others.
The following afternoon, Mr Lawlor said, Mr Doroscan made contact with Mr Ilyas and told him he wished to speak to him urgently. Mr Ilyas went into the house at Verdemont at about 2.41pm.
Witness Vlady Ndosimau previously told the trial that he ran up and barged through the door after hearing a loud banging noise inside the house. Inside, he said he witnessed Mr Ilyas sitting on the floor, with his back against a radiator, looking as if he had been beaten and with blood coming from his nose. His hands and feet were tied using a rope or a zip tie and he was moaning while Mr Clejan and Mr Doroscan shouted at him, the witness said.
Mr Doroscan, holding a fruit knife, stood between Mr Ilyas's legs while Mr Clejan stood close to his head with a hammer in his hand, the witness said. Mr Doroscan, he said, kept on shouting "where is the stuff" while Mr Ilyas responded by "groaning and groaning".
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of five women and seven men.
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