THE FAMILY of a young man killed in front of the mother of his unborn baby has said part of them died with him that night and that some days they do not want to live.
A victim impact statement was being read to the Central Criminal Court yesterday in the sentencing hearing of a 23-year-old Dublin man who stabbed his friend to death last year.
Daniel McCormack, of Kenure Park, Rush, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of James Joyce (20) near his home at St Cronan’s Close, Swords, Co Dublin, on July 22nd, 2010.
McCormack had pleaded guilty to his manslaughter, but this plea was not accepted by the State and he went on trial for murder in October. A jury acquitted him of murdering the father-to-be, but convicted him of manslaughter.
Det Garda James Tracey told yesterday’s hearing McCormack stabbed an innocent Mr Joyce three times after arming himself with two knives as protection from another man.
This other man had travelled from Meath to beat McCormack but, failing to find him, had beaten McCormack’s friend instead. The defendant told gardaí that when he heard this, he got two knives and went to the scene, planning to collect his injured friend and get out of Swords.
However, he met James Joyce, who was angry their mutual friend had been attacked. They threw a can of beer at each other before McCormack took out the knives and began swinging them at him. Mr Joyce was stabbed three times and died after being taken to hospital.
McCormack read about his friend’s death on teletext that night and handed himself in to gardaí the following day. He has been in custody since.
Mr Joyce’s first cousin, Melissa Crosby, entered the witness box yesterday and read a victim impact statement prepared by Mr Joyce’s family. His parents, Patrick and Ros Joyce, wrote that his death had “pulled the Joyce family apart”. They said their son was “kind, generous, lovable”, and had been a “loving son, brother, partner and soon-to-be father”.
“We can’t physically get out of bed,” they said of their grief. One of them wrote: “Some days I don’t want to live.”
Mr Joyce’s partner, Alison Colgan, gave birth to his son a few months after his death.
“I saw the love of my life get killed in front of me at seven months pregnant,” she wrote.
She said their son became sick when only six weeks old and she was told he would die. “I had to go through that on my own,” she said.
“James has missed his first smile, his first words, his first steps,” she continued, explaining Mr Joyce had been really looking forward to becoming a father, picking out baby names and choosing a buggy.
“My biggest fear is telling him what happened to his daddy,” she added.
Mr Joyce’s sister, Jacqui Joyce, said her youngest brother was the life and soul of the party.
Family members sobbed in court as a cousin read out her description of seeing him lying dead in the hospital, covered in blood.
“Part of us died with him,” she wrote. “My mother and father will never be the same.”
The victim’s brother, Patrick Joyce, described the deceased as having been his best friend.
“I try to ring his phone every now and again, thinking it’s a bad dream,” he wrote. “I sometimes go down to his grave when I wake up in the middle of the night.”
His other brother, John Paul, said he had to pass where his youngest sibling was killed every day and found it heartbreaking.
“I go into my parents’ house and they look so lost,” he said. “Sometimes I want to die to be with him.”
Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, said this crime was at the higher end of the manslaughter scale. Mr Justice Paul Carney adjourned sentencing until tomorrow.