Murder victim’s fiancee breaks down as she relives moment gun gang burst into their home
THE fiancee of a man shot dead in a south Belfast house broke down in tears as she recalled the moment a gunman burst into their home.
Naomi Smyth (28) wept as she told Belfast Crown Court how she knew “something was wrong” after she saw her partner Stephen Carson lying in a downstairs bathroom following a “loud bang”.
She also described how she tried in vain to stop the intruders entering her home in the Ormeau area of the city while trying to protect Mr Carson’s nine-year-old son during the fatal incident in February 2016.
Giving evidence via video link from a witness room at Laganside Court Complex, she revealed that she and Mr Carson, who briefly dated in their teens before going their separate ways, had been together for around five years prior to his death. She also revealed they became engaged on Valentine’s Day 2016, just days before he was killed.
The couple were in their Walmer Street home on the evening of February 25, 2016, along with Mr Carson’s son.
She told the court that Mr Carson (28) was in the kitchen and that she and the boy were on the settee in the living room when the front door was “booted open”.
Saying this caused her to jump up, Ms Smyth said she used one hand to try and protect the boy whilst using the other hand to try and keep the living room door closed.
The witness said: “When the first person came in, I seen another couple of people behind him. There were two in the hallway and one in the garden.”
She said the first man in the living room told her and the boy to “f*** up” and kept asking: “Where is he? Where is the f ***ing tout?”
Ms Smyth said she was pushed to the sofa, and when a second man entered the room, he grabbed her wrist and covered her mouth. Saying at one point she had something sprayed in her face, she told the court the intruders kept asking where he was, and Mr Carson’s son indicated he was in the kitchen. She said that after pulling a gun from his pocket, the ‘first male’ pointed it at her and the child.
Asked if he said anything at this point, she said: “Well, be- cause we were squealing, he kept telling us to f *** up.”
Asked what happened next, Ms Smyth broke down and said the first male “went straight down to the bathroom. Then I just heard a loud bang”.
She added that after returning to the living room, the gunman “put the gun back in his coat” and then he and the second male “squeezed through the door and left”.
Asked what she did after they left, she told the court: “I checked the back door because I thought Stephen might have got out the back door, but he didn’t. The door was still locked.
“I tried to open the back door. I couldn’t open it.
“Then I turned my head and seen him lying there.” She said she had to force the door open because of the way her fiance was lying.
And when asked if it was apparent to her that Mr Carson was seriously injured, she replied: “Yeah. He made a grunting noise. I knew something was wrong.”
Asked where Mr Carson’s son was at this stage, she answered: “I’m not sure. I think he was in the living room.
“One of the neighbours came in and got him.”
The jury of seven men and five women in the trial have already heard it is the Crown’s case that the motive for the murder could be linked back to an incident in 2010 when one of the three men accused of murdering Mr Carson sustained a serious wound to his arm. West Belfast cousins David James Francis Smith (35) and Michael Lawrence Smith (39), both from Monagh Drive, and Francis Gerard Patrick Smith (42) from Glenmurray Court all deny murder.
Michael Smith also denies possessing a firearm with intent to commit murder, while Francis Smith denies possessing a firearm and ammunition in suspicious circumstances.
It is the Crown’s case that Michael ‘Spud’ Smith was the gunman, while David ‘Dee’ Smith was the second man to enter the living room.
In the days after the murder, Ms Smyth attended a police station for an identification procedure, and when asked who did what that evening, she said: “Michael was the one that shot him and David was the one that grabbed my arm, covered my mouth and pepper sprayed me.”
As she gave evidence, the witness was asked about the history between her partner and the Smiths, and about the 2010 incident which caused Mr Carson to leave the area.
She said: “He told me about an argument that happened in Turf Lodge. He never told me about what happened, but he said Spud was involved in the argument and told me if anything was going to happen to him, that’s who it would be.”
Under cross-examination from Michael Smith’s barrister, Tim Moloney QC, Ms Smyth was pressed on what she knew about the incident in 2010.
She accepted that Mr Carson and two of his friends were involved in a fight and that Michael Smith sustained an injury, but said Mr Carson didn’t tell her much else as “Stephen didn’t want me involved in anything”.
Mr Moloney pointed out that three years after the incident, Mr Carson’s friend Kieran McManus — who was involved in the 2010 incident — was shot dead in west Belfast. The 26-year-old was killed outside Domino’s Pizza on Kennedy Way in March 2013.
The defence barrister asked the witness about a comment she made in the aftermath of her fiance’s death, when she said: “I need these people caught. They got away with Kieran’s murder, they won’t get away with this.”
Ms Smyth accepted she said this, telling the court: “My partner always said if anything was to happen to him, it would be them ones because of the fight.”
Mr Moloney then asked her: “Is it fair to say you couldn’t describe the men who had come in to the house that night, but you were convinced it was Spud and Dee Smith to the extent you said, ‘They got away with Kieran’s murder, they can’t get away with this?’”
She replied: “Everything happened so fast that night.”
At hearing.