Woman guilty of staging housemate’s suicide to protect boyfriend

A woman has been found guilty of staging her housemate’s suicide in order to impede the prosecution of her boyfriend for strangling her.

Egita Jaunmaize (34), a mother-of-one with no fixed abode, admitted placing a blue cord around the neck of Antra Ozolina (49) so as to simulate her suicide in order to make it more difficult to establish that her death was suspicious.

She pleaded not guilty to carrying out the offence, without reasonable excuse, at their home at The Old Post, Main Street, Kilnaleck, Co Cavan on or about June 27th, 2014. The mushroom picker told gardaí­ that she was in fear for her life and acting on her boyfriend’s orders at the time, having just seen him strangle Ms Ozolina. Both women were originally from Latvia.

The man who killed Ms Ozolina, a neo-nazi, was never charged because his brain function is limited due to an injury sustained months later while fleeing after a car he hijacked crashed. He is currently in a care facility, where he is spoon fed.

Jaunmaize was went on trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with impeding his apprehension or prosecution, knowing or believing him to have murdered Ms Ozolina or committed some other arrestable offence. The court heard that she reported her housemate and colleague’s apparent suicide to the authorities on June 28th, 2014.

Bible

Gardaí found the deceased in her bathroom with a blue rope around her neck. A bible and a vodka bottle were found nearby, and there were no immediate signs of a struggle. Gardaí suspected suicide, as did the local pathologist, who carried out the postmortem.

However, enquiries continued and it emerged the deceased was planning a month-long holiday in Latvia to visit her daughter. Her friends said she was not the type to take her own life.

A forensic pathologist carried out a second postmortem, which revealed she had died of blunt force trauma. Following an examination by an engineer it became clear that the rope’s function was to cover up a crime.

Janumaize eventually told gardaí that her boyfriend had strangled Ms Ozolina using his arm. She said she had tried to push him off the deceased, but he punched her in the stomach. She said he had grabbed her by the throat when she threatened to go to gardaí­and was afraid he would kill her too if she did.

She said the man forced her to put a rope around Ms Ozolina’s neck to make it look like suicide. She eventually agreed with the man’s plan to tell gardaí that it was a suicide.

The statements of other witnesses were then put to her, including one from a friend whom the deceased had phoned that night to say she was in fear and was going to ring the gardaí.

‘Neo-nazi’

The accused described her then bnoyfriend as a “skinhead neo-nazi”. She was released from custody but did not accept an offer of accommodation through St Vincent de Paul, and was seen in the killer’s company a few days later.

The trial heard the killer was arrested after Ms Ozolina’s death but denied the allegations put to him in interview. He was described in court as “brazen”, telling gardaí that if he had killed someone, he would hardly tell them.

The court heard that this boyfriend, who is now 31, has convictions for racist, neo-nazi offences in his native Latvia and has a large swastika tattooed on his chest. He had been in custody until six months before he moved to Ireland. He had breached his release conditions by moving here, and a European arrest warrant had been issued for him.

The jury heard that on October 29th, 2014, he and the accused woman’s half-brother staked out and bundled a Longford businesswoman into the back of a car. Ms Ozolina’s killer sat with his leg pressed up against her neck, while the other man drove. Gardaí­ pursued the car, while the men demanded money.

The car crashed and the alleged killer got out to run away. He was struck by an oncoming vehicle, causing him brain and physical injuries.

The accused went to gardaí in Longford after this crash, telling them: “I know now I can’t help him, I can’t change him. I’m tired trying to help him.”

Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending, said his client was “guilty of having been in a relationship with a bad man and was guilty of going back to the bad man afterwards”. However, he asked the jurors what they would have done in that situation on the night.

Following three hours and 47 minutes of deliberations, the jury of seven men and five women returned with a guilty verdict by a majority of 11 to one.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy thanked them for their service and remanded the accused in custody for sentencing on February 26th.