A 20-year-old man has gone on trial accused of murdering a fisherman in Waterford when he was a teenager.
Dean Kerrie, with an address in Portarlington in Co Laois, is charged with murdering 25-year-old Jack Power at Shanakiel, Dunmore East, Co Waterford on 26 July 2018.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Opening the case, prosecuting counsel Michael Delaney told the jury the deceased man, Jack Power, had left a local pub in Dunmore East at 3am on 26 July 2018.
While quite intoxicated, he drove his car a short distance and there was circumstantial evidence to suggest that he had crashed into a pole, damaging the bumper.
There was also damage to the wing mirror of his car and he seemed to be of the view that the damage was caused maliciously, Mr Delaney said.
The jury was told Mr Power drove on for a short time and parked his car in a cul de sac, before meeting two friends who said he was agitated and exercised about damage to the wing mirror of his car, which he believed had been caused by the accused Dean Kerrie, who was a local 17-year-old.
The jury will hear evidence that Jack Power picked up a rock and made his way towards Dean Kerrie's house at Shanakiel.
Mr Power’s friend heard the sound of breaking glass and when he followed, he saw Mr Power make his way into the house where an altercation was taking place in the hall.
He said Mr Power was in the altercation with Dean Kerrie and also in the "scuffle" was Mr Kerrie's mother Ann Fitzgerald and a friend of Mr Kerrie.
He said Dean Kerrie was seen to stab Jack Power in the chest with a knife. Mr Power then walked out of the house and collapsed outside.
A post mortem examination showed he had died from a 13cm stab wound to the chest. Toxicology showed there was a high level of alcohol in Mr Power's system and traces of cocaine, the court was told.
The jury was told disturbances continued at the house and a friend of Jack Power had returned and began breaking windows.
The jury heard a number of 999 calls were made on the night, including one from the accused man's mother Ann Fitzgerald.
Mr Delaney said that "somewhat strangely", she had called gardaí about windows being smashed in the house and had not mentioned that a man had been stabbed.
On the recording of the call, a man can be heard in the background shouting "you come into this house and I will take your life".
Mr Delaney said the prosecution will say this call was made when Mr Power had already been stabbed and not beforehand.
Mr Power's friend Christopher Lee gave evidence this afternoon and said they met at primary school and had been best friends ever since.
The witness said he went to the Ocean Hotel beside "The Butcher's" pub in Dunmore East until 1am on 25 July and then went back to his friend's house in Shanakiel until around 4am.
When Mr Lee left his friend's house in the early hours of the morning, he heard shouting towards the front of the estate and walked down as he knew "a good crowd" of his friends were out that night.
Mr Lee said he saw his friend Jack Power and another named man at the entrance to the estate so he shouted at them.
When the witness saw Mr Power, they gave each other a hug and walked down towards the flower bed.
When asked by Mr Delaney if there was any conversation between the pair, Mr Lee said he remembered "saying about busting up" Dean Kerrie's house but could not remember exactly.
Mr Delaney asked the witness what had prompted him to say that. "I don't know," he replied. He could not remember if Mr Power was saying anything.
The witness said he knew Mr Kerrie, who had also grown up in Dunmore East.
"I remember Jack running down towards where Dean's house was," said the witness.
Mr Lee "took after" Mr Power when he saw that he had not stopped running.
Mr Lee said Mr Power was nearly halfway down the road but he lost sight of him at the next corner.
"I could hear glass breaking but I couldn't see," he said, adding that he did not have a view of Mr Kerrie's house at that stage.
His evidence will continue tomorrow.
The court was told Dean Kerrie also dialled 999 looking for gardaí and an ambulance and that he was on the line for about 15 minutes and told gardaí he had stabbed Jack Power.
When he was asked where the knife was, he said it was on the floor in the hall. He was asked a number of times to leave it there and not to touch it. When gardaí arrived at the house there was a knife on the floor of the hall but no blood was found on the blade.
Another knife, which was partially concealed on a draining board, was later found to have Jack Power's DNA on it.
Mr Delaney said it was the prosecution’s case that the knife in the hall had been planted there by the accused or someone else in the house before gardaí arrived.
Mr Delaney told the jury that whether or not Dean Kerrie caused the damage to the wing mirror of Jack Power's car was not a fact that the prosecution had to prove, but it formed the background to what happened that night.
He said the prosecution must prove the accused intended to kill or cause serious harm to Jack Power.
Mr Delaney said that the prosecution will say that the natural and probable consequences of stabbing someone with a large kitchen knife into the chest is that "at the very least it will cause serious injury."
If the prosecution fails to prove that Mr Kerrie had the relevant intent at the time then the appropriate verdict is manslaughter, said the lawyer.
Referring to the defence of self-defence, counsel said that given the circumstances by which Mr Power gained entry to the home of Mr Kerrie, then the jury may have to consider the issue of self-defence.
"Self-defence in a murder case may provide the full defence or the partial defence, it may reduce murder to manslaughter or can result in an outright acquittal," he concluded.
In summary, Mr Delaney said that the concept of "reasonable force" is at the heart of the defence of self-defence, and a knife had been used on someone who was essentially unarmed.
The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury.
