A man who was 17 when he stabbed and killed a home intruder will spend three-and-a-half years in prison for manslaughter, an Irish court recently ruled.
The judge said Dean Kerrie, now 21, used “grossly” excessive force when he fatally stabbed the unarmed intruder in 2018, according to the Irish Times.
The jury deliberated for nearly six hours before finding Kerrie guilty of manslaughter but not murder, reported Irish national broadcaster RTÉ.
Citing Kerrie’s youth and noticeable remorse, the judge handed down a four-and-a-half year sentence, with the final year suspended for two years, and backdated to account for time already served, the Times reported.
The incident happened around 3 a.m. on July 26, 2018, when a man named Jack Power hurled a rock through a window into Kerrie’s house, entered the front door, and assaulted Kerrie and possibly his mother, the Times reported.
Power, 25, had reportedly been drinking that night and noticed damage to his car, for which he believed Kerrie was responsible.
Kerrie said he grabbed a kitchen knife from a bedroom to protect himself and his mother against Power. In a call to emergency services, Kerrie said Power had been trying to hit him when he stabbed Power in the chest, after which Power went back outside and died, according to TheJournal.ie.
The judge later said he did not believe Kerrie’s story about where the knife came from, according to the Times.
In audio of an emergency call played during the trial, Kerrie said he’d known Power “all my life,” according to TheJournal.ie. But when the dispatcher asked if he’d had “any previous dealings” with Power, Kerrie said, “No. My life is going to be gone over him coming in here.”
Power was a local fisherman who had intended to carry on his family’s fishing business, RTÉ reported. In a victim impact statement, his father said the loss was “immeasurable,” and they now lacked the “young blood” needed for their business.
