A Limerick woman told a murder trial jury in the Central Criminal Court yesterday that she saw her husband fall through the front door of their family home after being shot in the back.
Mr Patrick Brennan (54), of St Ida's Street, St Mary's Park, Limerick, denies the murder of father of eight Mr Sean Colbert (53), of Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, in Limerick who was killed outside his home on August 9th, 1996.
Giving evidence, Mrs Helen Colbert told the court that after going to bed on the night of her husband's death, she was disturbed by her son screaming and the sound of smashing glass.
After going downstairs, Mrs Colbert said she saw her husband through the pane glass front door, slouched and ready to "keel over".
She said she then saw him fall over on to his back. She rushed to her husband's side and could see his eyes and mouth were open but "couldn't see any signs of life".
Mr Colbert was taken to Limerick Regional Hospital but remained unconscious. Giving evidence in the afternoon, State Pathologist Prof John Harbison said that after completing a post-mortem on Mr Colbert's body, he concluded the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the lower back. Previously the court was told by prosecuting counsel Mr John Edwards SC that it was the State's case that the "deceased had been engaging in a longstanding affair with the accused's man's wife" for some years prior to the murder.
On the night of his death, Mr Colbert returned from visiting Mrs Brennan and was walking up the steps of his home when he was "shot twice in the back from behind.
"Two people dressed in balaclavas were seen running away from the scene," Mr Edwards said. It was the State's case that the accused man had "procured" the shooting of Mr Colbert.
Later the jury of nine men and three women were sent away until Wednesday to allow legal argument to continue.