The Special Criminal Court will continue delivering its verdicts next week in the case of three Dubliners accused of murdering 36-year-old Gareth Hutch just over two years ago.
Mr Hutch was shot four times as he was getting into his car outside a flats complex on North Cumberland Street in Dublin on the morning of 24 May 2016.
33-year-old Jonathan Keogh, of Gloucester Place in Dublin 1, his 41-year-old sister, Regina Keogh from Avondale House on North Cumberland Street and 31-year-old Thomas Fox from Rutland Court in Dublin 1 have all pleaded not guilty to the murder.
Mr Fox has also denied unlawfully possessing a handgun on 23 May 2016 at the flats complex.
Gareth Hutch was the nephew of Gerry Hutch, known as "the Monk".
The prosecution claimed that each of the three had their own part to play in bringing about Mr Hutch's death. The prosecution case is that Mr Keogh threatened to kill Mr Hutch in a heated exchange the evening before the shooting and that he and another man were the shooter.
It is alleged that Mr Fox and Ms Keogh were instrumental in planning the murder.
Presiding judge, Mr Justice Tony Hunt spent more than four hours today reading the court's judgment in the case of Mr Keogh. But he said there were 40 pages remaining in the judgment and the court also has to deliver its verdicts in the case of Ms Keogh and Mr Fox.
He said the court would sit again in a week's time.
Earlier, the judge said the court accepted the prosecution's case that this was not a spontaneous murder. He said it was "deliberate and callous" and required a considerable amount of planning.
Referring to the evidence of protected witness Mary McDonnell, Mr Justice Hunt said the court was satisfied that while her evidence carried significant dangers, it had to be viewed in light of all the other evidence.
The court was satisfied that her evidence identifying Jonathan Keogh as one of the men who used her flat to monitor Gareth Hutch on the morning of the shooting was accurate and was not something planted or prompted by gardaí, as the defence had suggested.
The judge said she had nominated Jonathan Keogh without influence or prompting when first questioned by gardaí in her flat and before there was any question of her own arrest or being given immunity from prosecution.
Ms McDonnell has been given immunity from prosecution by the State.
The trial, which lasted for nine weeks, also considered mobile phone evidence, forensic evidence and circumstantial evidence.
All three accused denied responsibility for the murder.
Lawyers for Thomas Fox argued that he withdrew from the alleged joint enterprise to kill Gareth Hutch on the morning of the shooting. And they said the judges would have to ask themselves if Mr Fox was acting under coercion and duress in relation to the firearm charge.
The court heard Mr Fox told gardaí that his co accused Jonathan Keogh told him he would "get it" if he did not do as Mr Keogh said, and that a gun was "pushed into" his hand.
Lawyers for Jonathan Keogh told the court the prosecution case was so troubling and weak that the judges could not bring in a guilty verdict. They claimed Mr Keogh had the misfortune to be in a very public row with Mr Hutch the day before the shooting and that Mr Hutch was a person that "other people wanted to kill".
And that the prosecution case was inconsistent, with splashes of evidence but no analysis. Senior Counsel, Sean Guerin said a fourth man, alleged to have been involved in shooting Gareth Hutch had been allowed to slip away.
Lawyers for Mr Keogh and for his sister, Regina told the court the evidence of the key prosecution witness, Mary McDonnell, could not be relied on. Lawyers for Ms Keogh said MsMcDonnell had downplayed her own role and upped that of others, to get a "great bargain". They said the case against Ms Keogh relied entirely on Ms McDonnell's evidence and it would be very dangerous to convict Ms Keogh on her account.
