A man was found guilty Friday in Ireland of murdering his older brother in a melee that broke out during a funeral at a graveyard.
Patrick Dooley, 36, of Killarney, is the fourth person to be convicted in the killing of Thomas Dooley, 42, a father of seven, in 2022, the BBC reported.
Dooley claimed that he jumped into the fray to protect his older brother after he was attacked by a gang of men with weapons during the funeral at Rath Cemetery in Tralee, the outlet reported.
It was unclear why Thomas Dooley was attacked.
On Thursday 43-year-old Thomas Dooley Sr. (from a different Dooley family), his son Thomas Dooley Jr., 21, and a teenager were also found guilty in the killing by a jury at Central Criminal Court in Cork.
The jury is expected to continue deliberating the cases against two others, Michael Dooley, 29, and Daniel Dooley, 42, who are also related to the deceased.
Thomas Dooley's wife, Siobhán Dooley, who was injured during the attack, testified that the trouble began after her late husband's brother Patrick and brother-in-law Thomas Dooley Sr. approached him at the funeral.
"They were actually grinning. I said to my husband to run. He said, 'No, why should I run? I have nothing to run for,'" she said, according to EchoLive.ie.
"I saw Tom [Thomas Sr.] with something in his hand. I saw him with two weapons in his hands. One was kind of shiny and looked to be new. The other had a bit of rust on it. I think one had a kind of round top on it, the other was kind of a big chunk of a yoke... Tom said, 'You're a big man now.' Patrick was grinning," the widow testified.
She said she tried to get in the way of the two men, but one of them said, "Take her out, too, get rid of her" before she was knocked to the ground.
"They were actually pushing each other to get in at him. I remember one of them pushing (another) back. 'Shove over, give me a chance, give me a go,'" she said.
