KENNETH Collopy will serve life in prison for the murder of Daniel Fitzgerald at Ballysimon in 2009, after a jury unanimously found him guilty at the Central Criminal Court, this Tuesday.
Evidence was heard that 20-year-old Collopy shot at the home of the victim’s uncle 16 or 17 times, where the 25-year-old carpenter had been visiting.
Daniel Fitzgerald was shot in the back of the head and leg after he left his uncle’s home in December 2009.
During the two week trial, the court heard from two eye witnesses that were in the Toyota Corolla with Kenneth Collopy and who identified him as the gunman in statements provided to the gardai.
It was claimed by defence counsel that Collopy was a “hot- headed teenager,” and the shooting was linked to an earlier arson attack on the van which belonged to his mother and was filled with clothes to be sold at the market.
The jury returned the guilty verdict and Mr Justice Barry White handed down the mandatory life sentence.
Noel Fitzgerald, father of the deceased, said that his son was shot over something that he was oblivious to and that he had absolutely no criminal record whatsoever.
