Jury rejects cocaine-shovelling gunman's mental disorder claim, convicts him of murder

Alison O'Riordan

A gunman who said he was "shovelling" cocaine into himself when he opened fire on a family member with a submachine gun in the victim's front garden was not suffering from a "substance-induced psychotic disorder", a jury has found in unanimously convicting him of murder.

The jury rejected father of six Christopher Devine's defence that he should be found guilty of manslaughter because he had a mental disorder which would have diminished his capacity to control himself.

They also rejected his contention that he was so intoxicated from taking "industrial quantities" of cocaine, combined with large amounts of alcohol, he couldn't have formed an intention to kill or cause serious injury.

Instead the panel accepted the case argued by Garret Baker SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, that Devine's mind was functioning as he had acted deliberately in the build-up to, as well as in the aftermath of, the killing of Michael Tormey.

Evidence

The trial heard evidence that Devine, who told gardaí that he was Mr Tormey's best man at his wedding, drove to the victim's home and shot him five times before walking back to his car and spinning the wheels as he made his escape.

Devine repeatedly denied to gardaí that he murdered Mr Tormey and the weapon used - an MP5 pattern submachine gun - was never recovered.

The court heard that Devine has no psychiatric history and had never taken any psychiatric medication.

Following today's verdict, Ms Justice Melanie Greally, who presided in the trial, adjourned the matter to December 19th when Devine faces the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. Members of the Tormey family will be invited to make statements to the court on that date.

Devine (44), with an address at Convent Lawns, Kylemore Road, Ballyfermot in Dublin 10 had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Tormey (49) at Thomond Road in Ballyfermot in the early hours of January 9th, 2022.

Mr Tormey was struck by five bullets in his front garden which went through his body, causing bleeding, rib fractures and partial lung collapse.

Interviews

Devine told gardaí in his interviews that he stood best man for Mr Tormey and that he and the deceased had been engaged in drug related activity by "shifting a bit of stuff for lads". The defendant went on to say "coke or whatever" when asked to elaborate by officers. However, he said that himself and Mr Tormey had "kind of got out" of the "drugs business".

During the seven-day trial at the Central Criminal Court, two psychiatrists differed on whether Devine qualified for a manslaughter verdict on the basis of diminished responsibility and cocaine intoxication.

Defence psychiatrist Dr John Hillery found that the defendant was suffering from substance-induced psychotic disorder, which would have diminished his capacity to control himself.

However, forensic psychiatrist Dr James Walsh, who was called by the prosecution, told the trial that Devine was not suffering from a mental disorder and instead met the criteria for cocaine intoxication from his self-reported consumption of 100 grams of cocaine over three days.

Dr Hillery testified that Devine told him he was "shovelling big shovels of shit up his nose" at the time of the offence.

However, the expert witness agreed under cross-examination that "a large chunk" of what he was told was self-reporting by Devine and that he couldn't preclude the possibility that the defendant had exaggerated or lied about his account.

In his closing address, Mr Baker said Dr Hillery had accepted that the relationship between intoxication and mental disorder is "blurry". "His findings, his contentions and his hypotheses are too blurry to be ultimately relied on," Mr Baker contended.

The nine men and three women today found Devine guilty of murder by unanimous verdict. They had deliberated for four hours and 54 minutes over the course of two days.

Ms Justice Greally thanked the panel for their service and said it was a very difficult case to decide on. She told the jurors that they had gone about their task in "a highly conscientious" way and given it all the attention it merited.

She excused them from jury service for the next five years and remanded Devine in custody until December 19th.

In her charge, Ms Justice Greally said if someone kills another by diminished responsibility, they lack the requisite intent for the offence of murder to be established. She said the first and primary position being adopted by the defence was that Devine had acted with diminished responsibility, which means a serious diminution of responsibility; "a reduction of scale and substance of consequence".

The judge told the jurors if they were satisfied Mr Devine was acting with diminished responsibility then the correct verdict would be not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

Cocaine and alcohol

She told the panel that if they were to conclude Devine did not have a mental disorder or that it hadn't diminished his responsibility, they could proceed to consider whether he was acting under the influence of a combination of cocaine and alcohol when he killed Mr Tormey.

"If you are satisfied he was intoxicated to the extent that he didn't form the intention to kill or cause serious injury then the correct verdict is not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter," said Ms Justice Greally.

In his closing address, Michael O'Higgins SC said it was the defence case that Devine had a mental disorder and his ability to control his actions were substantially affected. He said if the jurors rejected this then they had to consider whether the defendant was acutely and highly intoxicated such that it affected his ability to form an intention.

The defendant's daughter told his trial that her father would think there were people in the walls who were "coming to get him" when he took the drug and wouldn't recognise his own family. Jodie Devine said her father had become a cocaine addict in 2021 and she noticed him taking more cocaine a few months before the incident.

It was the prosecution case that in spite of drugs and alcohol, Devine was capable of rational thought at the time from the steps he had taken in perpetuating the killing of Mr Tormey.