'Get that eejit': Witness tells court of being directed to collect alleged 'cold-blooded' gunman

Alison O’Riordan

A witness has told the Central Criminal Court how she was directed to a bus stop to collect her friend's boyfriend, whom the State alleges was the "cold-blooded" executioner who just minutes earlier had shot a drug dealer dead.

The jury has heard how 22-year-old Jordan Davis was shot to death while pushing his four-month-old son in a pram through a lane in Darndale on Dublin's northside, with a lone gunman on a distinctive orange bike having fired at him eight times.

It is the prosecution's case that accused woman Rachel Redmond (34) drove the alleged shooter - her then partner Wayne Cooney - away from the scene and later checked him into a hotel in an effort to help him evade prosecution.

Witness Stacey Hayes on Wednesday told Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC, prosecuting, that she was driving a silver Volkswagen Golf on May 22nd, 2019.

Ms Hayes said she had gone shopping for a new car in Phibsborough with Rachel Redmond and later headed for her mother's house in Darndale. The witness said she was driving her car at the time, and Rachel was in the front passenger seat.

However, she said they didn't make it inside as they had met her nephew, who told them about a shooting but hadn't said who was shot. Ms Hayes said that they then reversed out and were going to see what had happened.

After learning it was Jordan Davis who had been shot, Ms Hayes said that they were going to return to her mother's house, but Rachel asked to be dropped home. The witness said the accused was on the phone but had no idea what Rachel was saying on the call.

Car journey

Mr Ó Dúnlaing asked the witness to describe the journey they had taken in the car. "We took a few turns in and around the area where it had happened," said Ms Hayes.

Asked why they were "taking a few turns", Ms Hayes said Rachel was asking her "to go this way and that way; to my knowledge we were going around to see what happened". The witness agreed with counsel that the accused had been telling her where to go.

She said they had picked up Wayne Cooney, who was Rachel's boyfriend, not far from a bus stop opposite Tesco on the Clarehall Road in Dublin 17.

Ms Hayes said it was "minutes" between hearing about Mr Davis being shot and picking up Mr Cooney.

Asked had the accused been on the phone the whole time, Ms Hayes said Rachel had been on the phone until they "got to Wayne" but that she didn't know who she was onto.

Ms Hayes told the jury that Rachel had said "there he is or get that eejit; something like that" when they picked up Mr Cooney, who the witness had met previously. She said there was no talk about Mr Davis or anything else when Mr Cooney got into the back of the car.

Ms Hayes said she had driven the couple around the corner from Ms Redmond's house. She said it was Mr Cooney who had decided he wanted to get out of the car at that point.

Ms Hayes told counsel she knew Rachel's family and that the accused had a brother called Robert, whose nickname was 'Roo'.

Ms Hayes also told the jury she had grown up with Rachel and that they had been friends for a long time.

The witness was shown CCTV footage and asked why she had done a U-turn on Belcamp Lane before turning onto the Malahide Road, Ms Hayes replied: "She was just telling me where to go".

Dominic McGinn SC, defending, put it to the witness that she told gardaí in her statement that Rachel had said to Mr Cooney there had been a shooting in Darndale when he got into the car, and he replied: "It's a mad place." Ms Hayes said she remembered this.

Victim's mother's statement

The statement of Mr Davis' mother, Sandra Davis was also read into the record today, where she said her son was always 'drawn to the older lads' and that there was nothing fancy in her home.

Ms Davis said Jordan began to have money and bought lots of nice clothes. She had asked her son where he got the money from, but he wouldn't answer her.

She said Jordan started to 'hang around' with a 'fella called Roo' and that she knew her son was selling drugs. She asked him to stop and kept telling him that his luck was going to run out.

Ms Davis said two men came to her house one night looking for Jordan and said he owed €120K. She said one of the men told her Jordan was going to be shot and she would be identifying her son in a coffin.

Ms Davis said 'five fellas' had also smashed up the front of her house in March 2019 and hadn't left a pane of glass in the front.

She said she was told: "Tell Jordan to pay his f**kin bills, it's not over, we will be back". She said she never went back to her house after that and was very angry with Jordan for putting her other children in danger.

She said Jordan told her in the weeks before he was murdered that 'a guy' with North Face gloves was going around the area on an orange bike. She said someone had convinced Jordan that it was alright for him to be out in Darndale and that the man was looking for someone else.

Ms Davis said she was on a bus on May 22nd when she was told there had been a shooting in Darndale. She said her niece then rang her to tell her Jordan was dead. She saw her son lying on the ground in the lane, which she said was "every mother's worst nightmare".

Ms Redmond from Coolock, but with an address at Clifdenville Road, Cliftonville Avenue, North Belfast, Antrim is charged on two counts that on or about May 22nd 2019, in the county of the City of Dublin, did knowingly or believing that another person, namely Wayne Cooney, committed an arrestable offence, to wit murder, without reasonable excuse did an act with intent to impede his apprehension or prosecution.

Ms Redmond has pleaded not guilty to the two counts.

The jury have been told that the prosecution have to establish that Ms Redmond, who was in a relationship with Mr Cooney at the time, knew or believed he had committed the murder.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Burns and a jury of three men and nine women.