An internet cafe manager kicked a customer to death during a “seven to 10 second” loss of control after a row over a 70-cent phone call, his sentence hearing has been told.
At the Central Criminal Court last month, Zhen Dong Zhao (40) pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of 39-year-old Noel Fegan outside the e-Times internet cafe and call shop in Dublin city centre on May 20th, 2011. The plea was accepted by the State.
Zhao, of Jervis Street, Dublin, was originally convicted of Mr Fegan’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2012.
However, that conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal earlier this year and a retrial was ordered. Zhao had spent two years and eight months in custody before the conviction was overturned.
On Friday prosecution counsel Pauline Walley SC recalled Detective Garda Niall O’Reilly to give evidence. The court heard that Zhao told gardaí during interviews that he came from a province in Northeast China and had been in Ireland since 2003, eight years prior to the killing.
Det Garda O’Reilly agreed with counsel that Zhao told him he had rented the premises in Dublin city centre from a woman 18 months previously and was paying her €5,000 a month.
Det Garda O’Reilly agreed with counsel that when he gave evidence on Monday, he told the court that a row had started in the cafe between the accused and the deceased.
One witness had agreed that she saw Mr Fegan slapping the accused’s face while a different account was given by another witness who said he saw the accused slap Mr Fegan first, the court heard.
Det Garda O’Reilly agreed with Ms Walley that there was a conflict between witnesses over who hit who first.
Remorse
The witness agreed with Anthony Sammon SC, defending, that his client had expressed remorse for what he had done during garda interviews.
The court heard that Zhao told gardaí at one stage during his interview on May 21st, 2011: “I don’t know how to put my words together but I regret what I did. He lost his life and I destroyed mine.”
Zhao also said he could not face the deceased’s family and he wanted gardaí to convey to them his sorrow for what he had done.
Ms Walley told Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy on Monday that Mr Fegan was a recovering heroin addict. The father-of-two went to Zhao’s shop after receiving a “call me” text message from his 12-year-old daughter on the day of the attack.
She said: “Mr Fegan was anxious to make contact with his daughter. He went into the e-Times shop which was then being managed by Mr Zhao.”
The court heard that CCTV footage showed the incident from when Mr Fegan entered the shop was “a very brief one” and lasted three minutes and 36 seconds.
Mr Fegan’s phone call to his daughter lasted 89 seconds and the row which broke out between the accused and the deceased over the payment of 70 cent lasted one minute and seven seconds.
Det Garda O’Reilly told the court that the physical altercation during which the kicking took place outside the shop and which led to Mr Fegan’s death was “in and around seven to 10 seconds”.
In mitigation Mr Sammon told the court that his client “deeply regrets” his utter loss of control and those “seven to 10 seconds” where “a life was taken unlawfully and all the dreadful consequences that ensued.”
The barrister said his client has suffered “very great consequences” and “will continue to suffer from them.”
Counsel asked Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy in imposing an appropriate sentence to give him credit for the periods having spent in custody as well as the “fairly tight bail regime” he has been subjected to pending his retrial.
He also asked the court to take into account the stress Zhao has been subjected to and how being from a “different cultural situation he will find incarceration harder.”
“The final fact I am asking you to take into account is that this man has been subjected to more stress than anybody facing a murder trial which is the most serious crime in the criminal catalogue with a mandatory life sentence and this man has faced this on two occasions,” he said.
Victim impact statements from members of Mr Fegan’s family were read out in court by Ms Walley on Monday.
Mr Fegan’s daughter, who is now 17, said her father’s death had left her heartbroken. She said her father would phone her every day after school and ask if she was getting much homework. But since her father’s death she had been referred to a counsellor at school because “to this day I cannot concentrate [in class] and think about my dad and what his last thoughts were”.
“He will miss out on walking me down the aisle and crying because he is giving his little girl away and that breaks my heart.”
Mr Justice McCarthy remanded Zhao in custody until December 20th, when he will be sentenced, saying that a further custodial period would be imposed in this case.