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.
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 10 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, prosecuting, said that Cypas was under no threat and had the intent to at least cause serious injury to Kokenbergs.
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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 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’s 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’s footwear had made a pattern on the deceased’s head.
Following Monday’s majority verdict, Judge 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 impose 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’s death has had on their lives.
