The jury in the trial of a Connemara woman who stabbed her former boyfriend 18 times was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Galway.
Maura Thornton (31 ) of Inverin, Connemara, entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of murdering US national Kevin Joyce (59 ) at her apartment at 183 Upper Salthill on July 31, 2011, ahead of the trial which began last week before Mr Justice Barry White and the jury of three women and nine men.
By day five of the trial all the evidence in the case had been outlined and the jury retired to consider its verdict. However, after failing to reach a verdict on Friday afternoon the jury was sent home for the weekend and deliberations resumed last Monday morning. Following deliberations lasting a total of three hours and eight minutes the jury returned at 12.29pm and informed the courtroom that a unanimous verdict had been reached finding Thornton “not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter”.
Paul Greene SC, for the prosecution, asked for the sentencing in the case to be put back to allow time for the preparation of the victim impact statement from the relatives of the deceased. Blaise O’Carroll SC, for the defence, also agreed that an adjournment was necessary as he required “time for mitigation”.
Mr Justice White then remanded Thornton on continuing bail, with the same conditions, to appear before him again at a Central Criminal Court sitting in Dublin on March 11 next for sentencing in the matter and for the victim impact statement.
During the course of the trial the jury had heard how Thornton had been in a relationship with Mr Joyce for up to three weeks but that this had broken down with Thornton claiming the deceased had been harassing her earlier on July 31. He came to the apartment for a second time later that night and the jury were told how Thornton “just lost it”, grabbed a kitchen knife, and went outside onto a roof area to confront Mr Joyce. Outlining the results of the post mortem, Deputy State pathologist Dr Khalid Jaber said the primary cause of death had been “multiple stab wounds” with two fatal wounds which punctured the left pulmonary artery and lung. He also said there had been significant loss of blood as well as other contributing causes such as blunt force trauma (a fracture ) to the left arm and an acute level of intoxication. The court had heard that Mr Joyce had 328mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, making him over six times the legal limit for driving, and that the fracture to the arm would have made him incapable of defending himself.
During interviews Thornton had told gardai that she had been drinking all day, consuming cidar and whiskey, that she had not meant to kill Mr Joyce who had been obsessed with her, and that she just meant to scare Mr Joyce. Thornton told gardai she “intended to give him a few prods” but could not stop and did not know whether she had been “putting holes in him or the jacket”.
