A murderer, who ran into the arms of a garda shortly after the killing, has lost his “audacious” appeal against conviction, in what the State’s barrister likened to a “slam dunk” case.
Warren Nolan was 18 years old when he shot dead 35-year-old Alan O’Neill in the victim’s front garden at Kiltalown Road in Tallaght, Dublin, on May 27th, 2015. He then burned out the car he used in the attack.
Nolan, now 23, of Rowlagh Park in Clondalkin in Dublin had denied both crimes but was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court and sentenced to life in prison.
The case against him had been circumstantial. His trial heard that both gunshot residue and accelerant were found on the gloves that he was wearing when he ran from the burning car into the arms of a garda. The T-shirt he was wearing also bore traces of accelerant.
However, the hoodie that he was wearing over that T-shirt had been mislaid during the investigation and was never tested.
At the end of his trial, his barrister, Michael Bowman SC, applied to Justice Paul McDermott to withdraw the case from the jury.
He argued that the lack of a test on the hoodie had resulted in a real risk of an unfair trial.
The trial judge ruled against him and the jury found him guilty.
Nolan appealed against his conviction to the Court of Appeal on a single ground.
Mr Bowman argued that, in light of the “central importance of the potential forensic evidence” that could have been garnered from the hoodie, the judge had erred in law and fact in ruling against him.
However, counsel for the DPP noted that Nolan had been arrested running from the burning car used to stalk the deceased.
“He runs into the arms of a garda,” remarked Shane Costello SC.
He noted that Nolan had then said: “I only set fire to the car”. This showed knowledge of something else, he suggested.
“He’s wearing the gloves that had the gunshot residue on them. He lies through interview,” continued counsel. “I hesitate to say that this is as close to a slam dunk case as you can find.”
Court of Appeal President Justice George Birmingham, presiding with Justice Patrick McCarthy and Justice Aileen Donnelly, delivered an ex tempore judgment.
He noted that the missing hoodie and what a test result might have shown had not featured as a major issue until the very end of the trial.
“Coming at this stage of the trial, the application might be described as a brave one,” he remarked. “Audacious is another word that comes to mind,” he continued.
“The arguments are really based on speculation that, had there been a test, that no gunshot residue would have been identified,” he suggested. “That might seem to be a somewhat optimistic assumption.”
He said that the court was of the same view as the trial judge, that a fair trial had not been undermined. The court dismissed the appeal.