Two brothers who attacked a 30-year old man in Killarney two years ago have been found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
19-year-old Shane O'Riordan of Arbutus Grove in Killarney admitted stabbing James Brazier 12 times. His 25-year-old brother Gerard admitted beating Mr Brazier with a chair.
Mr Brazier died at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee in the early hours of 15 April 2007.
He had been attacked as he slept at a house at Pinewood in Killarney and he died from the injuries he sustained in that attack.
For legal reasons, it is not possible to go into the motive for the attack.
Shane and Gerard O'Riordan went on trial at the Central Criminal Court in Cork charged with James Brazier's murder. The State had argued that Shane and Gerard O'Riordan were both guilty of murder because they were both acting together.
Shane O'Riordan told gardaí he flew into a rage and began attacking Mr Brazier with a knife he found on a bedside locker after he and his brother had gone to the house where Mr Brazier was staying.
He claimed that he 'flipped' and attacked Mr Brazier with the first thing he could find. He stabbed him 12 times in the back.
However, Shane's counsel, Patrick McEntee, argued that manslaughter would be the appropriate verdict in his case, because he had clearly lost control and was in a frenzy during the attack.
Gerard O'Riordan admitted to gardaí that he grabbed James Brazier by the neck, dragged him out of bed and punched him several times. He also beat him with a chair.
However, his counsel Tom Creed argued that there was no evidence that these blows had contributed to Mr Brazier's death.
After deliberating for two-and-three quarter hours, the jury of nine men and three women returned unanimous verdicts, finding Shane and Gerard O'Riordan not guilty of James Brazier's murder but guilty of his manslaughter.
The court will sit again in the morning to decide when sentencing will take place.
