It’s been a while in coming but the date has finally been set for Sharon Collins’ and Essam Eid’s appeal. The pair will find out whether they are to serve out the remainder of the six year sentences they received at the end of their 2008 trial in March next year. The two appeals will be heard on the same day and the whole procedure is expected to take two days.
If you’re not familiar with the case you can find out all the gory details here. That’s right, it’s the one I wrote the book about…that’s Sharon Collins herself on the cover on the right. The pair at the centre of one of the most bizarre trials to come before the Irish courts years were convicted after a six week trial last summer.
She’s a Co Clare housewife who decided to shop for more than groceries online. He’s a former Las Vegas poker dealer who had decided to branch out into the “hitman” business. Needless to say it didn’t end well, although at least the plotting came to naught and no one was killed. In the end Sharon was sentenced to six years for conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard. Eid was also sentenced to six years for trying to extort €100,000 from Robert Howard and also for handling items stolen from the Howard family business.
He had already served almost two years in jail after his arrest in September 2006 so will be the first of the two to finish their sentence. However he will have to face additional charges when he returns to the States. His former “wife” Teresa Engle has already served 8 months for her part in a similar scam to the one they tried to pull in Clare, that the pair attempted to pull of in California shortly before their trip to Ireland.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
