Two men convicted of murdering Mahamud Ilyas after row over stolen bag of cannabis

Fiona Magennis and Ryan Dunne

Two men have been found guilty of the murder of 22-year-old Mahamud Ilyas, who was beaten to death and dumped in wooded area in Co Meath after a row over a stolen bag of cannabis.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for seven hours and 52 minutes over four days before returning the unanimous verdict on Tuesday against Viorel Doroscan (23) and Otniel Richardo Clejan (24), rejecting the defence case that the two men had acted in self-defence after they claimed Mr Ilyas came running into an apartment with a weapon and threatened to kill them.

Neither Doroscan nor Clejan made any reaction as the jury’s verdicts were delivered.

Each of the men subsequently spoke to members of their legal team and hugged family members.

The jury will continue its deliberations in relation to a co-accused, Lorenzo Cantaragiu (21), of Castlegrange Park, Blanchardstown, on Friday.

Mr Cantaragiu faces various charges of impeding the prosecution or apprehension of Clejan and Doroscan, by carrying out various acts while knowing or believing them to have committed the offence of causing serious harm to Mr Ilyas.

It is alleged that he drove the two murder accused and the deceased to Belgree Lane and that he cleaned the car in which they travelled.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Mr Ilyas’ body was discovered in a wooded area at Belgree Lane in Co Meath on December 10th, 2022. The 22-year-old died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Assistant State pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the trial that the deceased sustained depressed fractures to his head, which were "typical of hammer blows".

The prosecution had contended that Doroscan and Clejan were involved in the sale and supply of drugs and that they beat Mr Ilyas to death after a row over a stolen bag of cannabis.

Witness Vlady Ndosimau previously told the trial that he barged through the door of the apartment after hearing a loud banging noise.

Inside, he said he witnessed Mr Ilyas sitting on the floor, with his back against a radiator, looking as if he had been beaten and with blood coming from his nose. His hands and feet were tied using a rope or a zip tie and he was moaning while Clejan and Doroscan shouted at him, the witness said.

Doroscan, holding a fruit knife, stood between Mr Ilyas' legs while Clejan stood close to his head with a hammer in his hand, the witness said.

Doroscan, he said, kept on shouting "where is the stuff" while Mr Ilyas responded by "groaning and groaning".

Closing address

In his closing address to the jury, Eoin Lawlor SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said use of a hammer was the “modus operandi for conflict resolution” employed by Doroscan, while the “appalling, callous way” in which the victim’s body was disposed of indicated his co-accused's part in the joint enterprise of the murder.

Doroscan, of Bay Meadows Square, Hollystown, West Dublin, and Clejan, with a former address at Verdemont in Blanchardstown in Dublin 15, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ilyas on December 9th, 2022.

The trial heard Mr Ilyas’ death could have taken between 30 minutes and up to five hours, but the deceased would have become unconscious very quickly.

Doroscan and Clejan denied murdering Mr Ilyas, telling gardaí that they had defended themselves.

“He was threatening us and telling us he’d stab us in the neck, he went for us with a crowbar,” Doroscan told gardaí.

His co-accused, Clejan told officers that he defended himself by “once striking and pushing” away Mr Ilyas.

Abdi-Aziz Mohamed, who was a friend of both the deceased and the accused men, said that he would “buy weed off” Doroscan and Clejan.

In 2018, he said Doroscan was dealing “ounces” and "selling small bags of weed,” but by 2022, he was “selling kilos of weed”, as well as cocaine and ecstasy.

Fight

The witness said that on December 9 2022, Doroscan told him he had a fight with Mr Ilyas. He recalled Doroscan saying, “either ‘he’ or ‘we’ hit Mo [Mr Ilyas] with a hammer”.

The witness recalled another occasion when he saw a hammer in Mr Doroscan’s bag. When he asked about it, Doroscan told him that someone owed him money for cocaine, and he was looking for him.

Having stolen the bag of weed, the trial heard that Mr Ilyas had suggested selling it back to Doroscan and Clejan and visited the apartment where they were bagging drugs.

During the nine week trial, the jury viewed footage of a Snapchat video on Doroscan’s account that showed a man lying on the ground, face up, with visible blood on his face and a large blood stain on the wall behind him.

The short clip showed the video-taker moving in closer to the head of the man on the floor and video-takers shoe can be seen briefly.

Detective Inspector Liam Donoghue said the shoe matched those worn by Doroscan on the same day.

Snapchat 'memory'

He said the video, which was posted as a ‘memory’ on the Snapchat app, was confirmed to have come from Doroscan’s account.

Metadata from Snapchat showed that the clip had been taken at 2.51pm on December 9th, 2022 in Verdemont estate in Blanchardstown.

After Mr Ilyas was beaten, it is alleged that Clejan then called Mr Cantaragiu and told him to come to the house with his car before driving Mr Ilyas to a field beside Hollystown, where they took the victim out.

“I took the ropes off him and left him there,” said Doroscan, adding that he put “like a blanket” beside Mr Ilyas.

“Mo was breathing okay but still threatening us,” he said, telling gardaí that “this guy was 100 per cent alive”.

He told gardaí that he left Mr Ilyas “in shelter underneath some trees” and “he was screaming all the way through”.

In his closing speech for Doroscan, James Dwyer SC said it was clear both Doroscan and Clejan had told gardaí they acted in self defence, yet the prosecution had sought to "rubbish it" and suggest it could not be believed.

In his closing address, Sean Guerin SC, defending Clejan, said he did not accept that his client was party to any agreement to inflict violence on the deceased.

In his charge to the jury, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said that if several persons have joined to attack a victim in circumstances where it is intended to cause serious harm, they are all guilty of murder, but if the injuries caused by one person are different from what the parties agreed on, only that one person is guilty of murder.

Evidence

“If during an attack, a weapon is produced by one and the other knows he has it and continues to participate, he is guilty of murder if the weapon is used to inflict a fatal wound,” said Mr Justice Hunt. He added that if the evidence does not indicate who used the weapon but its use was part of the joint intention, all parties involved are guilty.

Mr Justice Hunt sent the 12 jurors home for the evening shortly after 4pm.

He noted that one of the panel will be indisposed over the next number of days and he asked the panel to return to the Central Criminal Court on Friday to continue their deliberations in respect of Mr Cantaragiu.

In his closing speech, Michael Lynn SC, representing Mr Cantaragiu, said his client acted reasonably given the "intimidating and terrifying" circumstances in which he found himself.

He reminded the jury that Mr Cantaragiu told gardaí that Doroscan and Clejan had threatened to kill him, and he saw no way to escape.

Mr Lynn added: "At his age, in the circumstances in which he found himself, he acted reasonably. What else could he have done?"

CCTV

The defendant also told gardaí that he feared that "bigger criminals" or drug dealers would come after him and he was worried for his family.

Mr Lynn said the jury could also be satisfied that when he began driving, Mr Ilyas was still alive and Mr Cantaragiu believed he was taking him to his mother's house. He had not gone with the intention to impede any prosecution, Mr Lynn said.

However, in his closing address, Mr Lawlor said that Mr Cantaragiu had known that the other two men had brought a body down to the car, so he had known that the offence of causing serious harm had been committed.

Counsel said that CCTV footage showed that Mr Cantaragiu arrived at the apartment at 3.46pm, but the body was not brought to the car until 3.53pm, with the boot of the car open for a long time.

Mr Lawlor said that Mr Cantaragiu had a period of time to weigh the significance of what was being asked of him, but it was clear he intended to assist.