Murderer gets 19-year term for conspiring to kill dealer over €70k debt
Redmond sent ‘bang bang’ text to victim
Convicted murderer Robert ‘Roo’ Redmond, who cold-bloodedly conspired to gun down a drug dealer who owed him €70,000 after telling the victim “very soon, bang bang”, will now serve sentences totalling 19 years in tandem with his life imprisonment term.
Father-of-one Jordan Davis was shot dead while pushing his four-monthold son in a pram in broad daylight five years ago. The State previously told the Central Criminal Court that Mr Davis was a drug dealer but that this did not reduce his entitlement for respect to his right to life.
The court was told during yesterday’s sentence hearing for Redmond (35), who is already serving a life sentence for the murder of father-of-eight Barry Wolverson, that a text conversation revealed Mr Davis had owed a drug debt to Redmond of €70,000.
When Mr Davis’s mobile phone was examined by gardaí they found a message from Redmond warning Mr Davis: “I’m on your case mate, it won’t be long”.
Redmond had also sent Mr Davis a message saying: “F**king clown that can’t pay bills trying to be a big man. I heard a lot about you. Trust me, I’ll get you soon.”
A detective told the court yesterday that “tick lists” were found at two addresses linked to Redmond, which were searched in 2018 and 2019. One of the tick lists, identified by gardaí, had the name ‘Jordo’ with €70,000 beside it and the words “not yet”.
The court heard Redmond has 99 previous convictions including two counts of the possession of firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life as well as a life sentence for murder.
As well as the life sentence, Redmond received a 12-year term for the possession of a firearm and ammunition on the day Mr Wolverson was murdered. He also has convictions for blackmail and extortion, threats to kill and assault causing harm.
In passing sentence yesterday, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the seven-year sentence is to run consecutively to the 12-year term handed down to Redmond for possession of the firearm in the murder of Mr Wolverson.
He said the killing of Mr Davis had “devastating consequences” for the victim’s family and a consecutive sentence was “appropriate” in the context of Redmond’s “level of involvement and his criminal history”.
Redmond’s lawyers had argued that this structure would amount to a “quasilife sentence”.
Redmond, a career criminal with a previous address at Streamville Road, Kilbarrack, Dublin 13, pleaded guilty last month to conspiring together, with another or others, to murder 23-yearold Mr Davis on or about May 22, 2019, within the State.
Redmond was originally charged with the murder of Mr Davis, who was fatally shot by a gunman on a bike while pushing his four-month-old son’s buggy in a laneway beside Our Lady of Immaculate National School in Darndale.
Mr Davis suffered three gunshot wounds including one to the head that killed him instantly.
Redmond is the second person to be dealt with in relation to the offence.
In 2022, drug dealer Wayne Cooney (33) was jailed for life for the murder of Mr Davis after a jury found he was the cyclist who circled Mr Davis for three days like a “shark moving towards its prey” before firing eight shots at him from a 9mm pistol and striking him three times.
A child who happened to be cycling through the lane was just a few feet away when Cooney opened fire.
Before sentencing yesterday, Mr Davis’ mother Sandra Davis’s victim impact statement described her son as “our gentle giant”.
She said: “We miss you so much, our hearts are broken without you. We struggle since you were taken from us in such a cruel way”. She said Mr Davis’ young son was like him in many ways.
“This is a nightmare for our family and we pray this will never happen to another family”.
She described her son’s “big hearty laugh and smile” before adding: “Your life was ended too soon and in such a cruel way”.
She said she is reminded how lucky the family are when they look at Mr Davis’ son. She said it “broke her heart” as her grandson was “the image of his daddy”.
Mr Justice McDermott said he was “satisfied” that a pre-mitigation headline sentence of the maximum 10 years’ imprisonment could be fixed but he gave Redmond a two-year discount for his plea of guilty.