The parents of a young man who died after being stabbed in the neck in north Co Dublin said they had been left with “a void that will never be filled” as a 22-year-old was given the mandatory sentence of life in prison for their son’s murder.
Brandon Gavin, of Brookdale Road, Rivervalley, Swords, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Marius Mamaliga (19) at Forest Court, Swords on February 23rd of last year. He claimed he had acted in self-defence.
A Central Criminal Court jury heard Mr Mamaliga was sitting in the driver’s seat of his car with two friends when Gavin got into the rear passenger side, reached across into the front seat and stabbed him in the neck with a knife before fleeing the scene. Mr Mamaliga received assistance at the scene from passersby, including an off-duty paramedic, but was brought to hospital in a critical condition and died three days later.
Gavin claimed he feared for his life as he owed a drug debt of €2,500 and was defending himself after Mr Mamaliga “came at” him. Witnesses told the trial that Mr Mamaliga had sold drugs in the past and Gavin owed him money.
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However, a jury unanimously found him guilty after agreeing with the prosecution’s argument that Gavin’s defence claim was “self-serving nonsense”. The court heard Gavin had been messaging women on Tinder just minutes before the attack and had searched online for “prison sentence for murder in Ireland” a day earlier.
State Pathologist Dr SallyAnn Collis told the jury that Mr Mamaliga suffered hypoxic brain injury caused by the deprivation of oxygen to the brain due to blood loss.
In their statement, read in court by John D O’Keefe of Advocates for Victims of Homicide, Inga and Victor Mamaliga said they were dealing with “unbearable pain that will stay with them until the end of their days”.
“Nothing will be able to fill the void in the hearts of the parents who have lost a child,” they said.
They described their son as a young man who had hopes and dreams, who worked and studied. They said he never thought his days would be “numbered by someone who would attack him from behind”.
They said it was unbearable to sit in the courtroom and listen to how their child was killed and to look at the defendant, who they said had shown no remorse.
“Instead of kissing and hugging our child, we go to the cemetery to lay flowers at his grave,” they said.
Gavin wrote a short letter to the court, read out by his counsel Dean Kelly, in which he said he knew what he had done had ruined many lives. He asked for Mr and Mrs Mamaliga’s forgiveness for the pain he had caused them.
Ms Justice Eileen Creedon thanked the Mamaliga family for their statement and extended her deepest sympathy to them for their loss. She said she must impose the mandatory sentence of life in prison on Gavin.
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