Rihards Lavickis jailed for murder after unanimous verdict

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Rihards Lavickis was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Akadiusz ‘Arik’ Czajkowski following a unanimous jury verdict at the Central Criminal Court. Justice Michael White imposed the mandatory sentence. The proceedings were reported on 21 March 2019.

Lavickis pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. It was his second murder trial; a previous jury had failed to reach a verdict.

The trial heard that Lavickis admitted going out with a knife on 1 November 2016 to get Czajkowski for threatening his family and breaking their windows. The killing took place outside Longford Shopping Centre.

The court heard that Lavickis had bought drugs from Czajkowski on credit. After the money was not paid when requested, Czajkowski went with an associate to Lavickis’s home and attacked him with a knuckle duster. Lavickis reported the attack to gardaí but decided not to press charges, and the debt was reduced to €100. He held Czajkowski responsible for his family’s windows being broken on several occasions.

Gardaí testified that Lavickis reported a broken window on the morning of the killing and named Czajkowski as a suspect, saying he would get him. The jury saw CCTV footage of Lavickis chasing him with a raised knife and heard that he stabbed him three times; the stabbing was not captured on camera. A post-mortem found that one wound to the heart caused his death.

The defence argued that Lavickis lacked the intent required for murder and that, if the jury found he had the intent, it could find he had been provoked. The prosecution argued that the natural and probable consequences of a knife wound to the chest were death or serious injury.