Two men have been found guilty of the murder of a 22-year-old man, who was beaten to death and dumped in a wooded area in Co Meath after a row over a stolen bag of cannabis.
Viorel Doroscan, aged 23, of Bay Meadows Square, Hollystown, west Dublin and Otniel Richardo Clejan, aged 24, with a former address at Verdemont in Blanchardstown in Dublin 15, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mahamud Ilyas on December 9, 2022.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for seven hours and 52 minutes over four days before returning the unanimous guilty verdict, rejecting the defence case that the two men had acted in self-defence after they claimed Mr Ilyas came running into an apartment with a weapon and threatened to kill them.
The body of Mr Ilyas, who was originally from Somalia, was discovered wrapped in carpet in a wooded area at Kilbride near Ashbourne on 10 December 2022.
He died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the trial that he sustained depressed fractures to his head, which were "typical of hammer blows".
The prosecution had contended that Doroscan and Clejan were involved in the sale and supply of drugs and that they beat Mr Ilyas to death after a row over a stolen bag of cannabis.
Witness Vlady Ndosimau previously told the trial that he barged through the door of the apartment after hearing a loud banging noise.
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Inside, he said he witnessed Mr Ilyas sitting on the floor, with his back against a radiator, looking as if he had been beaten and with blood coming from his nose. His hands and feet were tied using a rope or a zip tie and he was moaning while Clejan and Doroscan shouted at him, the witness said.
Doroscan, holding a fruit knife, stood between Mr Ilyas's legs while Clejan stood close to his head with a hammer in his hand, the witness said.
Doroscan, he said, kept on shouting "where is the stuff" while Mr Ilyas responded by "groaning and groaning".
In his closing address to the jury, Eoin Lawlor SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the use of a hammer was the "modus operandi for conflict resolution" employed by Doroscan, while the "appalling, callous way" in which the victim's body was disposed of indicated his co-accused's part in the joint enterprise of the murder.
The jury is continuing its deliberations in relation to a co-accused, Lorenzo Cantaragiu, aged 21, of Castlegrange Park, Blanchardstown, who faces various charges of impeding the prosecution or apprehension of Clejan and Doroscan, by carrying out various acts while knowing or believing them to have committed the offence of causing serious harm to Mr Ilyas.
It is alleged that he drove the two murder accused and the deceased to Belgree Lane and that he cleaned the car in which they travelled.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
