A MURDER trial has heard that the alleged victim died after arguing with the defendant over a light being left on in their apartment.
The Central Criminal Court jury was hearing evidence on the first day of the trial of a 51-year-old Slovakian man charged with murdering a Polish man in north Dublin in 2007.
Josef Szabo, of Rathlin House, Waterville, Blanchardstown, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 33-year-old Robert Kwiatkowski on or about April 20th, 2007, at their apartment in Rathlin House.
One of their other flatmates, Eva Kocokova, explained that she and her partner, Ladislav Nemechek, shared the two-bedroom apartment with the defendant and the deceased.
She and Mr Nemechek shared a bedroom with an en suite bathroom, Mr Szabo slept in the other bedroom, and Mr Kwiatkowski slept on the couch. Mr Szabo and the deceased shared the other bathroom in the apartment.
She, Mr Nemechek and the deceased cooked together, and Mr Szabo cooked in his bedroom, where he had a hotplate and cooking utensils, she explained.
Ms Kocokova said she, her partner and Mr Kwiatkowski had dinner together as usual on the evening of April 20th, and the accused was in his bedroom. The couple decided to go shopping and she went to her room to get her coat.
On the way she noticed the light on in the bathroom the two men shared. She told Mr Kwiatkowski this when she returned to the dining area.
She said he went and knocked on the bathroom door but there was nobody there, so he went to Mr Szabo’s room and asked why the bathroom light was on. She heard them arguing, she said.
“Robert came back to the dining room after a while and showed that his hand was injured by Josef closing the door to his face,” she said through an interpreter. “He was in pain and he was upset.” She said that Mr Kwiatkowski returned to the defendant’s bedroom and showed him his hand. She heard them argue again.
“We heard a noise when Josef threw Robert out of his room, something banged,” she said, explaining that it sounded like something heavy hitting a wall and falling to the floor.
She said she ran out to the hall and saw the deceased lying face down on the floor. She and her partner turned his head and she saw that he was going blue and there was blood coming from his mouth.
“I started screaming that something might be stuck in his throat,” she said. “Ladislav opened his mouth and could see his tongue was in his throat.”
She said the defendant had come from his bedroom and also tried to help Mr Kwiatkowski. Both men tried to pull his tongue out, and told her to call an ambulance.
The court heard that Mr Kwiatkowski was pronounced dead about 10pm that night in nearby Connolly hospital, where he had been taken in the ambulance.
Paul Burns, prosecuting, told the jury of three women and nine men that forensic evidence would show that the victim’s blood found in the defendant’s bedroom was consistent with his bleeding in there. “It’s the prosecution’s case that the accused man killed Robert Kwiatkowski by stabbing him once in the chest,” he said.
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Barry White, when Ms Kocokova will be cross-examined by the defence.