The mother of a man who was shot dead in front of his partner in the driveway of their home has told the Central Criminal Court she may never know why her son was murdered.
Doris O'Neill was giving her victim impact statement at the sentence hearing of a 22-year-old man who was jailed for life for the murder of Alan O'Neill.
Warren Nolan, from Rowlagh Park, Clondalkin, was found guilty by a jury last December of the murder of 35-year-old Alan O'Neill at Kiltalown Road in Tallaght on 27 May 2015.
Nolan was 18 at the time of the killing.
He was also convicted of setting on fire the stolen car used to flee the scene of the shooting.
He was arrested minutes after the shooting after running straight into a garda who was in the area by coincidence and had stopped another youth driving a car.
The prosecution relied on CCTV evidence and forensics to secure the conviction of the 22-year-old. Gloves in his possession were found to have gunshot residue and his clothes had petrol particles on them.
In a victim impact statement Doris O'Neill said she would never understand why anyone would want to hurt her son, adding "maybe I will never know".
She described him as a gentle giant who loved life and enjoyed charity work.
Ms O'Neill said the worst nightmare in the world was to lose a child but to lose him in this way was "too horrific, so traumatising, so devastating, so unbearable, so unforgettable."
She said her family had fallen apart since his death. "My self and my family have been through hell and back and we are all so lost without Alan," she said.
She said her first born son had helped her to raise his siblings as his father had died when he was young.
Mr O'Neill's step-daughter Chantelle Usher described how she had to leave the funeral home on the day his body was released to his family to sit her Leaving Cert exam.
She said she felt she owed it to him because he had spent the last year of his life driving her to grinds and helping her to study, rest and eat well before her exams.
She described her mother Michelle's pain at having to break the news of Alan O'Neill's death to his daughter.
She said the now nine-year-old suffers from anxiety.
Ms Usher said her mother had been diagnosed with cancer since her partner's death and was also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression since the murder.
She said Mr O'Neill's priority was to love and protect them. She said he made them feel safe and "for such a horrific act of violence to be committed at our home makes us feel so unsafe in the world".
She said her brother Darragh missed his friend and father figure who ensured he went to school and was home at a reasonable time.
Warren Nolan was sentenced to life in prison along with a six-year sentence for arson to be served at the same time.
The court heard he had 24 previous convictions including one for possession of a firearm.
The court heard he had a difficult life, having watched his mother die from an asthma attack at the age of 14.
He had been raised by his grandmother who was the only positive influence in his life, the court was told. He had no formal education and had a drug problem.
During the trial Alan O'Neill's partner Michelle Usher described how she saw a dark figure approach him seconds after he had parked in the driveway of their home at around 10pm.
She saw flashes of light and heard a number of loud bangs. When she opened her front door he fell in towards her. He later died from two gunshot wounds.
She saw the figure with the gun run out of the garden and get back in the people carrier which then "took off".
By his posture and movements she thought he was a "young boy" or a "teenager" but she did not see his face.
Nolan was arrested within minutes of the shooting. The alert had just gone over garda radio when Detective Garda Conor Harrison and a colleague pulled over a car that they believed to be suspicious at nearby Belfry Manor.
Det Harrison then heard another car revving hard and coming at speed. When he saw a youth pull up his hoodie and "move with purpose" away from him he decided to take a closer look and around the same time became aware of a car that had been set on fire about 100 metres away.
As this was unfolding Nolan arrived "like he had been shot out of a cannon," and almost ran into the detective.
Det Harrison said he immediately formed the suspicion that Nolan had come from the burning car which had come from the shooting in Kiltalown Road.
He brought Nolan to the ground and as he did so, he said he noticed a lighter fall from the suspect's gloved hand. The detective later recorded in his notebook that Nolan called out: "I only set the car on fire, I only set the car on fire." Nolan denied using those words in his interviews with gardai over the following days and said the lighter fell from his pocket, not his hand.
Nolan was arrested and taken to Tallaght Garda Station where, during a series of interviews, he denied any knowledge of Mr O'Neill's murder and said he was in Tallaght visiting his aunt and hanging around with friends.
He could not remember where he had been or where any of his friends lived. He also denied that he was there to meet the driver of the suspicious car - the alleged getaway car - that had been stopped by Det Harrison and his colleague.
State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy told the trial that Mr O'Neill died from a bullet wound that went through his forearm and into his side, damaging the body's main blood vessel and puncturing the liver.
Another bullet entered the right thigh but did not damage any major structures. From the trajectory of the wounds she said it is likely that he was already on the ground when he received the wound to his leg.
Forensic scientist Dr Tom Hannigan examined gloves that were confiscated from Nolan and found firearms residue on one of them.
This, he said, offered "very strong support" for the hypothesis that Nolan was the shooter rather than that he was not. Under cross-examination from Michael Bowman SC Dr Hannigan accepted that he did not test any other items of clothing belonging to the accused man. He further accepted that had he tested the sleeves of the top worn by Nolan and been unable to detect firearms residue he would have had to reconsider his findings.
Shane Costelloe SC for the prosecution also pointed to CCTV footage tracking three vehicles alleged to be involved in the murder plot, "stalking their prey", in the hours before the shooting. Mr Costelloe said the CCTV showed the shooter emerging from a people carrier at the driveway to Mr O'Neill's home and firing four times at Mr O'Neill before making his escape in the same car, which was driven by an accomplice.
That car, Mr Costelloe said, was the same one that was burned out at Belfry Square by Nolan moments before he ran into the "welcoming arms of Detective Harrison."
Mr Costelloe said during his closing speech that Mr Nolan was not the only person involved in the murder of Mr O'Neill. There was the driver of the people carrier and the alleged getaway car and the driver of a third vehicle said to have been "stalking" Mr O'Neill in the lead up to the shooting. No motive was suggested for the murder during the trial.
