A Tipperary man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Shane Rossiter in 2012.
Mr Rossiter died as a result of gunshot wounds on the 17 of October 2012 following a house party in Church Lane, Golden, Co Tipperary.
Maurice Power (31) of Dranganbeg, Kilmoyler, Cahir was yesterday (thurs) found guilty of murdering the thirty year old. He had denied murdering Mr Rossiter.
The Central Criminal Court heard that the accused had grown up with Shane Rossiter and they had been good friends. The accused told gardai in an interview that 'there was bad blood between he (Shane Rossiter) and myself'.
He said there was ‘a lot of serious history’ between them and ‘it involved a stabbing’ seven years prior to the death of Mr Rossiter. He told gardai he was in fear for his family and for himself.
The jury were told that the deceased had moved home from Australia six weeks before he died.
The four-week trial heard there was an extensive period of detention in which the accused made a full confession to his crime. Following his arrest on the 11 December 2012, the accused told gardai he had ‘let a shot at Shane Rossiter’ at 6.45 on the morning of the 17 of October.
State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy told the court she carried out a post mortem examination on Mr Rossiter at Waterford Regional Hospital.
She described two shotgun entry wounds to the chest and abdomen with no exit wounds, causing devastating internal injuries and blood loss into his chest cavity.
Professor Cassidy said the cause of death was shotgun wounds to the chest and abdomen, blood loss and injuries to the right lung, heart, liver, spleen, bowel, aorta and inferior vena cava.
The court heard that the burnt remains of the accused mans car were found near Clonmel shortly after the death of Shane Rossiter.
The court also heard that the accused man had asked if he could remove a chip from a CCTV camera for his own peace of mind.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for more than 4 hours over two days before reaching a guilty verdict by 11 to 1.
They remained in court as a sister of the deceased Jenna Rossiter read a victim impact statement describing how her brother's life had been 'taken overnight'.
“Death is never easy to write about,” said Ms Rossiter.
“The pain of losing someone you love through violence came as a devastating shock to all of us. His life was taken overnight – so much left unsaid.”
“He was taken at 30 years of age – we are left with so much emptiness anger and frustration. We lost a brother before which makes Shanes death even harder to accept. We will always wonder what if? This has affected each of us differently – it is a life sentence for us.”
“It felt like Shane was on trial for his own murder. It was an attack on his own character. No amount of dragging Shane’s name through dirt will make a difference to his warmth, wit and all the happy times.”
Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy told Power 'the jury have found you guilty. I sentence you to life imprisonment'
Ms Justice Murphy said that over the last 5 weeks, the jury have served an important civic duty and pardoned them from jury service for the next 10 years.