MURDER ACCUSED: I DON’T REMEMBER STABBING JASON TO DEATH
TRIAL CONTINUES AS BRAZILIAN MAN ACCUSED OF MURDERING CLONROCHE MAN JAMES BANVILLE
THE MAN charged with the murder of County Wexford man James (Jay) Banville claimed he does not remember fatally stabbing him following a series of arguments and physical confrontations.
Last week jury of six men and six women at trial at the Central Criminal Court heard graphic detail about the wound inflicted on the 28-year-old Raheen man and witness accounts of what happened on that fateful night.
Medical evidence was also heard about the deceased who was a father-of-three and his friend, who was also injured that night; while DNA evidence from the knife which inflicted the fatal wound was outlined.
Evidence was also heard from garda interviews with the accused, Juraci Da Silva, in which he said he was defending himself having been attacked by the two Wexford men.
DAY SIX
A witness to a fatal stabbing told a murder trial that blood was coming from the deceased ‘ like water coming from a hose’.
Georgina Roche told prosecuting counsel John O’Kelly SC that she tried to help 28-yearold James Banville after seeing a fight that led to him being stabbed. At first she thought the men were just boxing, but when Mr Banville lifted up his top she saw the wound. She tried asking him questions to keep him awake but he didn’t respond and his eyes rolled back in his head. He held his friend’s hand for a few minutes, but then it dropped.
‘I could see the wound,’ she said. ‘It was like water coming from a hose.’
Juraci Da Silva (36), with an address at Park Lane Apartments in Waterford, has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of 28-year-old James Banville at New Street in Waterford on October 8, 2016.
His plea was not accepted by the State and he is on trial at the Central Criminal Court. Mr Da Silva has also pleaded not not guilty to assaulting Conor Hogan causing him harm and to a charge of producing a knife on the same date and at the same place.
Keith Wall was working as a security man at New Street Gardens when, shortly after 3 a.m., he noticed a ‘ black man’ wearing a red jacket ‘ hanging around’ on the street. He said it was normal to see people at that time, heading home after the nightclubs had shut, but this man stood out because he didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
He then heard two Irish lads shouting but he couldn’t understand what they were saying. When the ‘ black man’ and the two Irish men came closer together he got the impression that they recognised one another and ‘ there was a coming together’.
Mr Wall said he saw them all running and a fight broke out. The taller of the two Irish lads ‘ threw a haymaker’, but missed and then all three ended up in a huddle before the two Irish men retreated. He then heard someone say ‘I’m after being stabbed’, followed by a lot of swearing and racial comments. The witness heard the phrase ‘ black bastard’ repeatedly.
‘I never heard anything like it before,’ he said.
Before the fight, the witness said the two Irish men were being ‘ loud and aggressive’ towards the black man, who was ‘much smaller’ than the other two. After the fight he lost sight of all three but saw the gardai and ambulance arrive some time later.
Dr John Power told Mr O’Kelly that he examined the accused the day after the stabbing and noted that he complained of dizziness, headache and had bruising around one eye.
He referred him to University Hospital Waterford as a precaution but when the hospital examined him and said he had no significant head injuries the doctor passed him as fit to be interviewed.
The jury was also shown a black handled knife which Garda Eugene O’Neill said was found nearby. The defence accepts that Mr Da Silva inflicted the fatal wound using the same knife.
DAY SEVEN
A man who was stabbed to death during a night out had alcohol, cocaine, methadone and valium in his system, a pathologist told a murder trial on Wednesday.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis told prosecuting counsel John O’Kelly SC that James Banville died from a single stab wound to the heart and was otherwise healthy.
Dr Curtis said the cause of death was the single stab wound that had penetrated the heart. He added that a toxicology report showed that he had alcohol, cocaine, valium and two other drugs that are sometimes used as “contaminants” in illicit drugs.
Dr Curtis agreed with defence counsel Colman Cody SC that cocaine is a strong stimulant that can lead to erratic or violent behaviour. Combining it with alcohol can enhance the effect, he said.
Methadone, he said, is often prescribed to people who are addicted to opioids such as heroin.
The court had previously heard that Mr Banville and his
friend Conor Hogan assaulted the accused twice on the streets of Waterford over a 20 minute period prior to the stabbing, which happened at about 3.15 a.m.
Dr Curtis also noted that the deceased had tattoos on his body, one of which said: ‘Only God can judge me’. The other read: ‘ The devil made me do it.’
Dr Clara Boland of the Forensic Science Laboratories told Mr O’Kelly that she examined a knife found near the scene which it is accepted Mr Da Silva used to inflict the fatal injury. Dr Boland took swabs from the knife and found DNA profiles matching those of Mr Hogan and the deceased.
Dr Ulrich Fick said he examined the accused at 4.44 a.m. at Waterford Garda Station, about 90 minutes after the stabbing. He found him to be in a highly intoxicated state and told gardai that Mr Da Silva would not be fit for interview for six hours.
DAY EIGHT
The father of three who is on trial for murder told gardai he couldn’t remember stabbing a man to death when questioned the day after the fatal assault.
Detective Garda Kevin Nolan told prosecuting counsel Noel Whelan BL that he interviewed the accused at Waterford Garda Station on October 8, 2016, the same day that Mr Banville died.
He agreed that during those interviews Mr Da Silva described an assault on him by two men at the steps leading to the apartment where he lived. When gardai put it to him that following that assault he pursued his attackers and assaulted them in retaliation, he said he couldn’t remember.
At the beginning of the first interview Mr Da Silva, who was declared unfit for interview due to intoxication when first arrested, told gardai: ‘I was quite drunk. I only know what is going on today.’
The accused said he arrived in Ireland the previous month to work at a local meat factory as a general assistant. He has three children and he worked to take care of his family.
The previous evening, Friday, he went out with three other Brazilians after work, at between five and six o’clock.
He played snooker at one pub for about two hours and then went to a nightclub but he couldn’t remember how much he drank.
After the nightclub he headed home and along the way he spoke to two women who were sitting on a bench outside his apartment. He couldn’t remember what he said to them and added that he does not speak English.
While he was speaking to the two girls, someone came up behind him and attacked him, punching and kicking him and knocking him to the ground.
He told gardai his attackers then ‘disappeared’ and he went back to his apartment and was arrested a short time later.
Gardai said to him that something happened between the assault and his arrest and he replied: ‘What I remember is what I said.’
The interviewing gardai asked him if he accepted that he assaulted someone. ‘No I don’t,’ he replied. Gardai asked him if he had a knife at the time and he responded: ‘No.’
Gardai then showed Mr Da Silva CCTV footage showing him walking after the two men following the assault. He told them that he did follow them but when he got to the corner of New Street the two men were gone and he went back to his apartment. ‘I’m remembering now,’ he told them.
Gardai put it to him again that he assaulted the two men and he replied: ‘No, no, no. They assaulted me and I went to the corner and came back.’
They asked him if he followed them to retaliate and he replied: ‘I understand but my head is all messed up.’ He repeated that he could not remember. When gardai said to him that the CCTV shows that his movements were “a lot different” to what he had told them he told them: “My head is confused.”
At the end of the second interview he said he couldn’t remember hitting or assaulting anyone.
At the start of the trial Mr Da Silva’s counsel Colman Cody SC told the jury that his client accepts that he stabbed Mr Banville, causing the fatal injury.
DAY NINE
A Brazilian who has admitted stabbing a man to death told gardai that he didn’t have a knife and had never carried knives when interviewed following the fatal assault.
Detective Garda Kevin Nolan told prosecuting counsel John O’Kelly SC that he interviewed the accused at Waterford Garda Station on October 8 and 9 2016. The court has previously heard that Mr Hogan and Mr Banville twice assaulted the accused on the streets of Waterford City before a third encounter that left Mr Banville dead and Mr Hogan needing stitches to a wound under his arm.
Garda Nolan agreed that during interview gardai told Mr Da Silva that following the second assault he had the option of going back to his apartment but instead followed the two men up the street.
Mr Da Silva said he could remember that after the assault the two men were ‘gesturing’ and it looked like they were going to come back. He said he followed them as far as the corner but he didn’t see the two men again and so he came back to his apartment.
Gardai put it to him that he was holding a knife and that one witness saw him carrying a knife when he followed the two men.
He said: ‘I disagree. If it were me I would say it.’
Gardai asked him why he assaulted the men and whether he was defending himself but he said he did not see the men again.
Gardai asked him what he did with the knife and he said: ‘I didn’t have a knife.’ They asked if he carried a knife and he replied: ‘ No. I have never killed anybody.’
They asked if he went up there to defend himself and he replied: ‘No. I was drunk. I couldn’t defend myself.’
He added that he has never walked around with arms in Ireland or in Brazil.
Interviewers also asked Mr Da Silva about a red jacket that he was wearing on the night but that was found nearby.
They asked him why he threw it away but he said he did not throw it away and couldn’t remember what happened to it. He said it might have fallen from his hand as he walked along.
The trial was not heard Monday due to Hurricane Ophelia and is due to continue today in front of Justice Michael Kelly and a jury of six men and six women.
Justice White told the jury that the trial will be completed before October 20.
THE INTERVIEWING GARDAI ASKED HIM IF HE ACCEPTED THAT HE ASSAULTED SOMEONE. ‘NO I DON’T,’ HE REPLIED.