By Georgina Brennan

A jury is to be selected this week to begin the trial of the man accused of murdering Co. Monaghan native Eugene McMahon, 46, a New York City Department of the Environment inspector.

On Thursday, December 15, Taiquan Williams, 26, an inmate incarcerated at Coxsackie Correctional Facility in upstate Coxsackie, will appear in Queens Criminal Court charged in a seven-count indictment which includes second degree murder. Williams faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. He has already pleaded non-guilty during his arraignment.

A nightshift supervisor inspector, McMahon, from Gola Mill, Scotstown, Co. Monaghan, was found shot dead in his car on the morning of August 9, 2002. His wallet and cell phone had been stolen.

McMahon was married and living in Queens with his wife Maureen, daughters Heather and Erin and son Gerard, having emigrated from Co. Monaghan in 1985.

“The defendant is alleged to have confronted the victim before dawn on a deserted street in an industrial section of Long Island City and to have shot him to death during a robbery. McMahon was a New York City DEP supervisor and a family man with a wife and three children whose lives were shattered by his violent and tragic death,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown told the Irish Voice on Tuesday.

On the day in question, Williams allegedly confronted the victim, who was seated in a parked department vehicle, shot him once in the head, causing his death, and robbed him, taking the victim’s cell phone and wallet.

McMahon died from a gunshot wound to the head three days after he tried to defend himself during the robbery.

Brown said that the defendant is already serving a sentence of one year to three years in prison for attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree.