KINAHAN KILLER FACES 28 YEARS
Getaway driver James Quinn found guilty by jury Bloody gangland feud sparked by Spanish attack
KINAHAN gangster James Quinn was yesterday convicted of Gary Hutch’s brutal murder – and is facing up to 28 years in a Spanish jail.
A jury found the Dubliner, 35, drove the getaway car after the 34-year old was blasted with 15 bullets beside a swimming pool on the Costa del Sol.
The attack in 2015, which the trial heard was ordered by Daniel Kinahan, sparked a bloody gangland feud.
A forewoman told Malaga court: “The jury considers James Quinn is guilty of causing the death of Gary Hutch.”
AN Irishman was yesterday found guilty of murdering Gary Hutch in a killing that sparked a bloody gangland feud.
A Spanish jury found James Quinn was the getaway driver and not the gunman who blasted the 34-year-old near Fuengirola in September 2015.
The forewoman said: “The jury considers James Quinn is guilty of causing the death of Gary Hutch by participating in the murder itself by performing lookout functions and helping the unknown killer to reach and flee the murder scene.”
Jurors also decided prosecutors had not proven the Dubliner was acting on the orders of gangland bosses – meaning he cannot be sentenced to life in prison.
The jury convicted the 35-year-old of a second charge of illegal weapons possession at a court in Malaga where his trial began on Monday.
State prosecutor Jose Barba called on judge Ernesto Carlos Manzano to jail Quinn for a total of 28 years – 25 for murder and three for the weapons conviction.
Quinn’s defence team urged the judge, who is expected to deliver his sentence within weeks, to jail him for the minimum 20 years a murder conviction carries in Spain and two years for the gun crime. The killer showed no signs of
emotion as he was told of the unanimous 9-0 murder verdict.
He waved to a brunette in the public gallery who did not want to comment outside court and shook his lawyer’s hand before being led away by police.
The forewoman said it had been proven Quinn acted as a lookout and getaway driver because of a baseball cap with his DNA on it found in the stolen BMW X3 after it was dumped near the murder scene.
But she added they could not conclude he was the man who chased Hutch round a swimming pool at his gated estate in Miraflores near Fuengirola before shooting him dead.
The state prosecutor had offered jurors the possibility of considering Quinn was the getaway driver and not the gunman in an “option B” indictment he handed them on day three of the trial.
He told the court trying Quinn he was still seeking a murder conviction and the same life sentence for the Irishman as a “necessary participant” in the pre-planned killing.
The possibility of a life sentence was cancelled out because jurors rejected prosecution claims Quinn belonged to a criminal organisation blamed for the killing, despite the prosecutor saying it was linked to the ongoing deadly feud between the Hutch and Kinahan families. Jurors also found it had not been proven Quinn was paid for the murder.
Revealing they did support police and prosecution claims the gunman was wearing a baseball cap he swapped for a balaclava before killing Hutch, the forewoman added: “The jury considers it has not been proven the accused was the wearer of the baseball cap the gunman changed out of before lying in wait for the victim, chasing him round the estate where he lived and killing him with two shots to the head.” She said jurors had found Quinn to be the “necessary participant” and not the gunman because it was not possible to see the killer’s face on CCTV footage seized by police which showed the brutal murder.
Jurors said the two baseball caps found in the partially burnt-out BMW Hutch’s assassins torched before jumping into another getaway car meant the black Oakley cap with Quinn’s DNA on it could only place him in the vehicle. The firearms conviction relates to a Glock pistol found at Quinn’s luxury home near Estepona with his DNA on it, not the two pistols recovered from the getaway car.
Five other people were held over the Hutch killing – widely regarded as sparking the feud which has claimed up to 15 lives – but only the father of one was charged.
He claimed at the start of his trial he was in bed with a post-wedding hangover and a prostitute when the nephew of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch was killed.
He failed to provide an alibi and the state prosecutor described his claims as a “collection of the outlandish”.
We consider Quinn guilty of causing the death of Gary Hutch SPANISH JURY IN COURT YESTERDAY