The father of murder victim Roy Collins has told the Special Criminal Court that Wayne Dundon made intimidating gestures towards him during a previous criminal trial.
Steve Collins told the non-jury court that Dundon was on trial in 2005 charged with threatening to kill his stepson.
Mr Collins said Dundon kept staring at him and tapping his watch “indicating what I thought was my time had come”.
Wayne Dundon (36), Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, and Nathan Killeen (24) Hyde Road, Prospect, have both pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Collins (35) at Coin Castle Amusements, Roxboro Road Shopping Centre, on April 9th, 2009. Mr Collins was at work about noon that day when a gunman entered his amusement arcade and shot him in the chest.
It is the prosecution case that Dundon directed the murder from prison and that Killeen was the getaway driver.
Steve Collins earlier told the trial that after being shot, his son told him how much he loved him but could not say who had fired the gun.
The prosecution recalled Mr Collins to the witness box yesterday to ask him about a trial in May 2005 in which Dundon was accused of threatening to kill his stepson.
Mr Collins told Michael O’Higgins SC, prosecuting, that he attended every day of that trial and every day Dundon would be listening to music on his headphones. He said he kept tapping his watch and staring at him, which caused him concern. “It felt very intimidating,” he told Mr O’Higgins, “like at some stage he was going to get me and that my time would come.”
Watches not allowed
Remy Farrell SC, for Dundon, suggested to Mr Collins that the incident never happened and told him that prisoners were not allowed to wear watches. Mr Collins said he believed it was a watch but it could have been a bracelet.
The current trial has already heard evidence from Dundon’s first cousin, Anthony ‘Noddy’ McCarthy, who is serving a life sentence for murder.
McCarthy gave evidence that Dundon told him that he had ordered the murder of Roy Collins. He tapped the wrist of his watch hand when telling the trial that Dundon said: “Steve Collins didn’t believe me when I did that in court.”
The three trial judges have also viewed the gun which was allegedly used in Mr Collins’s murder.
Ballistics expert Det Garda David O’Leary showed an unloaded 9mm pistol to the court. He said he received this for examination in 2012 along with three bullets. He said the gun was rusted and covered in soil and organic material, suggesting it had been improperly stored. However he was able to fire it after oiling it and removing some of the rust. It was his view that marks on a cartridge found at the murder scene matched up to the handgun.
The trial continues, presided over by Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley.