Mahamud Ilyas murder accused said 'we hit Mo with a hammer', witness tells trial

Ryan Dunne

A jury has heard that one of two men accused of murdering Mahamud Ilyas over two years ago allegedly told a friend that “we hit Mo with a hammer” during a fight before leaving him “on a field”.

The jury at the Central Criminal Court also heard that Viorel Doroscan (23) made “a callout video” as “a joke” some months before the death of Mr Ilyas after allegedly claiming that he had a hammer in his bag as someone owed him money for cocaine.

Mr Doroscan, of Bay Meadows Square, Hollystown, west Dublin, and Otniel Richardo Clejan (24), with a former address at Verdemont, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ilyas on December 9th, 2022.

Co-accused Lorenzo Cantaragiu (21) of Castlegrange Park, Blanchardstown, faces various charges of impeding the prosecution or apprehension of Mr Clejan and Mr Doroscan by committing various acts while knowing or believing them to have committed the offence of causing serious harm to Mr Ilyas. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Witness Abdi-Aziz Mohamed, on Wednesday, gave evidence to Eoin Lawlor SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, that he was friends with the deceased, as well as being friends with the accused men, Mr Clejan and Mr Doroscan. In response to being asked what shared activities he had with the accused, the witness said, “I would buy weed off them.”

Mr Lawlor asked him what level of “dealing weed” Mr Doroscan was involved in, to which Mr Mohamed replied that in 2018, he was dealing “ounces” and "selling small bags of weed,” but by 2022, Mr Doroscan’s level of dealing was “selling kilos of weed”, as well as selling cocaine and ecstasy.

The witness said that he met Mr Doroscan on December 9th, 2022, where the accused told him, “we had a fight with Mo”, meaning the deceased, Mahamud Ilyas.

Mr Mohamed confirmed to Mr Lawlor that “at some point”, Mr Doroscan said, “either ‘he’ or ‘we’ hit Mo with a hammer”. The witness said that he saw Mr Clejan in the back of a waiting taxi, and “he looked nervous”.

Mr Mohamed said that he later “thought about the fight” and called both of the accused, but their phones were off.

He said that when he did speak to Mr Doroscan on the phone and asked him what had happened with Mr Ilyas, the accused replied that “we left him on a field”. The witness said that the accused told him he called an ambulance for Mr Ilyas.

“I said, ‘What kind of psychopath leaves someone on a field?’” said the witness, going on to say that Mr Doroscan told him the field was in Hollystown. The witness said he travelled to Hollystown but did not find anything in the area described to him by the accused.

“I went to that place but didn’t see anything. In my mind, I was thinking this can’t be real,” said the witness.

He told the court that he called Mr Doroscan back and said, “You won’t get away with this”, telling the accused that he was going to go to the police. He said that when he later learned about the discovery of a body, he called the gardaí.

The witness went on to tell the jury that he backed up his phone at the end of that year and came across a video he had taken of Mr Doroscan on August 15th, 2022. He said that on that date, he had been socialising with Mr Doroscan and others in a field near his house, “all smoking weed”.

“I saw a hammer in his bag and asked about the hammer. He told me that a guy owed him money for cocaine, and he said he was looking for him,” said Mr Mohamed.

The witness said that he made a suggestion to the accused to do “a callout video” after Mr Doroscan had said he was looking for this person who owed him money.

“Like, you call out whoever you’re looking for as a joke. I asked him, ‘Do you want to make one?’ and he said yeah,” the witness said.

In response to cross-examination by defence counsel for Mr Doroscan, James Dwyer SC, the witness confirmed that the callout video was made “as a joke”.

Mr Dwyer said that in a statement the witness had given to gardaí in January of 2023, he had not made any mention of Mr Doroscan saying that someone owed him money for cocaine.

“I didn’t say it because I had a lot of things on my mind,” replied Mr Mohamed, going on to say that he had been “traumatised for months” after Mr Ilyas’s death.

Mr Mohamed went on to confirm to Mr Dwyer that what Mr Doroscan probably said to him was that “we” had hit Mr Ilyas with a hammer.

At the opening of the trial, Mr Lawlor said the prosecution intended to show that Mr Doroscan and Mr Clejan were involved in the sale and supply of drugs.

On December 8th, 2022, counsel said a house at Verdemont was being used to store cannabis. That evening, Mr Ilyas called to the house and was seen leaving carrying a shopping bag containing cannabis. Mr Lawlor said Mr Ilyas “wasn’t supposed to” take the cannabis and then tried to sell it to others.

The following afternoon, Mr Lawlor said Mr Doroscan made contact with Mr Ilyas and told him he wished to speak to him urgently. Mr Ilyas went into the house at Verdemont at about 2.41pm.

Vlady Ndosimau previously told the trial that he was at the bottom of the steps when Mr Ilyas went inside but ran up and barged through the door 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 Mr Clejan and Mr Doroscan shouted at him, the witness said.

Mr Doroscan, holding a fruit knife, stood between Mr Ilyas's legs while Mr Clejan stood close to his head with a hammer in his hand, the witness said. Mr Doroscan, he said, kept on shouting "where is the stuff" while Mr Ilyas responded by "groaning and groaning".

He said Mr Doroscan then dragged Mr Ilyas by the legs until he was lying flat on the floor and began kicking him in the legs, ribs, neck and head. "It was pretty hard. He kicked him a few times and was shouting, he kept on asking 'where's the stuff, where's the stuff?'"

Mr Ndosimau said he panicked and left but found out two days later that Mr Ilyas was dead.

The trial continues on Thursday before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of five women and seven men.