After four years a Philadelphia jury recently found former barman John McLaughlin guilty of the first-degree murder of Northern Ireland native Seamus O'Neill.
And McLaughlin has been sentenced to life in state prison without parole.
The murder of O'Neill, on Jan. 3, 2008, inside McWhitey's bar, in Port Richmond, made headlines because of its sheer brutality. McLaughlin, the bartender and manager, beat O'Neill, 60, repeatedly on the head with an aluminum bat during an argument.
McLaughlin, 40, and a friend Samuel Toy, 48, then stripped O'Neill naked, wrapped him in a tarp and duct tape and hid the corpse in the basement of the bar.
"The level of brutality that was demonstrated by the defendant on the victim in this case is just unspeakable," Assistant District Attorney Jude Conroy, said after the verdict was read.
McLaughlin, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, was also convicted of abuse of a corpse and possession of an instrument of crime. Toy was convicted of hindering apprehension and obstruction of justice. He was found not guilty of abuse of a corpse. He will be sentenced April 13.
The name of ADA Conroy is familiar to Echo readers as he was the prosecutor in the case of Donegal native Neil Martin McConigley who was gunned down in Philadelphia several years before O'Neill was murdered.
