‘I was never in the car or at the apartment... I had nothing to do with murder’
Irishman denies gunning down Gary Hutch in Spain as jury decide verdict
James Quinn, 35, from Dublin THE jury in James Quinn’s murder trial has been sent out after he insisted he did not gun down Gary Hutch at his Spanish home.
The accused, 35, who allegedly pulled the trigger or drove the stolen getaway vehicle, yesterday told the court: “I was never in the car, I was never at the apartment and I didn’t have anything to do with the murder.”
The Dubliner is facing a life sentence if found guilty of the September 2015 killing, which sparked a deadly feud between the Kinahan and Hutch families.
A prosecutor said he was convinced the dad of one had killed Hutch.
But he told the jury in Malaga he was also offering them the option of convicting Quinn of murder – but ruling the defendant was the driver and lookout.
The barrister referred to the baseball cap containing the accused’s DNA that was recovered from a BMW Hutch’s killers tried to torch near the scene.
He said: “Quinn has been in prison for more than a year-and-a-half.
“I think if he ever admitted regretting anything it wouldn’t be the murder of Gary Hutch but the fact he didn’t destroy the now famous baseball cap which has ended up certifying his involvement.” The lawyer dismissed Quinn’s claims he was hungover and in bed with a prostitute when Dubliner Hutch, 34, was shot at a gated estate in Miraflores near Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.
The lawyer told the jury although there was no contract to prove Quinn was a hired assassin for the Kinahans, there was evidence pointing to the fact he was a paid killer and murdered Hutch for money on the orders of a crime boss. The deceased was a nephew of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch.
A defence solicitor said there was no proof to back up the claim Quinn killed for cash and insisted the possibility of manipulation existed in the recovery of the baseball cap.
He added: “The state prosecutor says you can convict the defendant on the basis of a CCTV screen grab he says shows James Quinn with the cap on inside the estate where Gary Hutch was living.
“But the state prosecutor himself has placed it in doubt.
“It’s the state prosecutor in his alternative indictment who removes that cap from James Quinn’s head.”
The defendant has also been tried for illegal weapons possession and faces a three-year prison sentence if he is convicted.
SPAIN YESTERDAY
Gary Hutch, 34, also from Dublin
If he ever regretted anything it’d be not destroying the cap
STATE PROSECUTOR