Man (35) who beat his friend to death in drunken row found guilty of murder
Alison O'Riordan
A scaffolder who meted out a "volley of violence" on a defenceless "drunken bowsie" in response to his mother being insulted with lewd requests for sex has been found guilty of murder by a Central Criminal Court jury on Monday.
The panel of eight men and four women took six hours and 54 minutes over three days to reject the defence case by a majority verdict of ten to two, finding that this was not an unlawful killing but a case of murder.
It was the State's case that Juris Kokenbergs died after his head was "stomped" on and blows "rained down on him" during an assault by his friend Tomas Cypas.
In his closing speech, Conor Devally SC, prosecuting, said that Cypas was under no threat and had the intent to at least cause serious injury to Kokenbergs.
Counsel said Cypas had inflicted "a battering" and an "appalling attack" with huge violence on his friend after Kokenbergs made "the utterances of a very drunk man".
The jurors had the option of returning three verdicts in relation to the murder charge against Lithuanian national Cypas, namely: guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty.
The jurors were told by the trial judge that they could find Cypas not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by reason of lack of intention to kill or cause serious injury or on the grounds of self-defence, provocation or intoxication.
Cypas (35), with an address at Foxborough Road, Lucan, Co Dublin had pleaded not guilty to murdering Latvian national Juris Kokenbergs (49) at Old Bridge Park, Lucan, Co Dublin on October 28th, 2024.
The defendant told gardaí in his interviews that he visited his mother at Old Bridge Park on October 26th to celebrate her birthday and have "some drinks". Cypas said that Kokenbergs was already "pretty drunk" when he arrived at the house and that he wouldn't have invited his friend if he knew he was in that state.
Cypas described his friend as being "so drunk" that "he didn't seem to know who he was talking to.....he had been drinking for two weeks straight".
The defendant said that there was an argument between him and Kokenbergs, adding: "It started over him [the deceased] telling my mam to go up and have sex with him. He said it three times."
Cypas said Kokenbergs "came at" him first and had "started the punches", so he acted in self-defence.
Cypas said he hit the deceased up to eight times in the face and didn't "mean to hurt him or anything".
"I didn't think it was that bad, I didn't consider he would die of his injuries. I didn't plan this, he is my friend, it happened," the defendant told detectives.
He denied stamping on Kokenbergs' head during the assault.
Under cross-examination by the defence, a pathologist told the jurors that punching alone could have caused the extensive damage she found to the deceased's brain.
Expert witness Dr Heidi Okkers testified that while "definitely" some sort of contact had been made from a shoe to the deceased's scalp, she could not determine if it was significant.
The trial heard evidence that three areas of blood-staining with DNA matching that of Kokenbergs were found on the defendant's runner. The jury also heard there was "weak support" for the position that Cypas' footwear had made a pattern on the deceased's head.
Following today's majority verdict, Justice Paul McDermott thanked the jury for their service, which he said required careful attention to detail. He exempted them from jury duty for the next five years.
The judge will hand down the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment to Cypas on March 23rd and remanded the defendant in custody until that date.
On that date, the Kokenbergs family will have an opportunity to make a statement to the court about the impact Juris' death has had on their lives.
The jury had listened to a 999 recording of Cypas on the morning of October 28th requesting an ambulance for his friend, who he said was no longer breathing and was cold to the touch.
When gardaí arrived at Old Bridge Park at 8.15am that morning and cautioned Cypas, the defendant replied: "I hit him, this isn't murder, I just hit him".
The defendant told gardaí in his interviews that he had checked regularly on Kokenbergs when he lay on his sofa over the course of two days.
Cypas said his friend had been breathing and snoring at 5am on the morning of October 28th before he discovered him lying on the kitchen floor dead hours later.
When asked to carry out CPR by an emergency services dispatcher, Cypas had replied: "It's not going to help, it's not helping no".
The dispatcher said the ambulance crew would not be able to help his friend if Cypas did not do this. "He's...even the smell off him you know," Cypas had replied.
In seeking a verdict of manslaughter for Cypas, Brendan Grehan with Rebecca Smith, defending, had submitted that his client's case was that he had acted in some way in self-defence, but what was much more likely was that the defendant had "lost it" and hit his friend with "a flurry of punches" in response to his mother being insulted with a lewd comment.
Grehan asked the trial jury to return a verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, asking the panel: "Where is the intent the prosecution suggest you grab onto and hold tight?"
The defence also queried how far the State's case that there was "extensive stamping" on the deceased's head was made out on the evidence.
Grehan suggested that the pathologist had been fairly unequivocal in her evidence, when she said that punching alone could have caused the "terrible injuries" suffered by the deceased.
It was the defence contention that the case was not one of murder. "Murder is something you know when you see it and hear it and it is not the situation here; we are dealing with an unlawful killing," argued Grehan.
In his charge to the jury, Justice McDermott said the reality of the case focused on what was in the mind of the defendant when he inflicted these injuries on the deceased and that this was the main focus of contest between the prosecution and defence.
