A friend of the man accused of killing teacher Ashling Murphy claims that Józef Puska called his home on the night of the murder, sounding like he was in a fight, reports RTE.
Rostislav Pokuta, who is also Slovak, told the Central Criminal Court that he gave Mr. Puska a lift home and asked what happened, but he did not want to talk.
Puska, 33, of Linally Grove, Co Offaly, Muclagher, denied murdering Ms Murphy on the afternoon of January 12, 2022.
Mr Pokuta said he had been in Ireland since 2006 and everyone called him Peter.
He was married with children, drove a bus and earned a living with other bus drivers, the court heard.
Pokuta said Puska was very scared. He was wet and his face was bleeding from scratches. He looked completely different.
He told gardaí he looked like he had been in a fight and his face was almost blue.
When asked why he didn’t tell police about it in his first statement, Pokuta said he was worried about his family.
Following the murder of Ashling Murphy, he stated that there was a lot going on and a lot being said on social media. He said he was afraid someone might come to his house and do something.
Gardaí recorded his statement on video and offered him a lawyer. However, Mr. Pokuta said, “why would I need a solicitor?” reports RTE.
Pokuta identified his home on CCTV footage, where he said he and Mr Puska got into their son’s Volkswagen Golf and drove towards Muclagh.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Michael Bowman, Mr. Pokuta agreed that in his first statement, he had claimed that he had not seen either of Pusk’s brothers since Tuesday, January 11.
Detective Garda Ciaran Byron told the court how gardaí analyzed data from Miss Murphy’s Fitbit watch.
The court heard it showed consistent data from just before 3pm to just after 3.20pm on the day she was murdered, reports RTE.
Another chart shows the direction she was traveling in – Ms Murphy walked east along the canal for about 3km before turning back at Digby Bridge.
At 3:21 p.m., five minutes after she turned around, her Fitbit stopped working consecutively.
The final chart prepared by Det Gda Byrne showed Ms Murphy’s heart rate.
It increases steadily until 15.21, according to one exercise. At this point, the rate quickly dropped to 15.27. There was a slight increase from 15.27 to 15.31, reports RTE.
Det GDA Byrne told the court that after this time the Fitbit stopped measuring heart rate.
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