The preliminary hearing for the murder of Belfast man Seamus O'Neill took place on Wednesday, August 20, where prosecutors called to the stand two men who witnessed O'Neill's murder in Philadelphia.

Bartenders Robert Evans and Raymond Mooney said they saw the manager of McWhitey's bar, John McLaughlin, 36, beat the 60-year old Irishman to death with a baseball bat on the morning of January 3, 2008 in the establishment.

Minutes after the murder, both Evans and Mooney testified that following McLaughlin's orders, they went upstairs to continue drinking while O'Neill's body was being removed from the bar. Evans also said that he inhaled three lines of cocaine.

According to Mooney's testimony, McLaughlin later joined the men upstairs for a few drinks. "I think I killed the man," McLaughlin told Mooney.

Evans said that O'Neill, who worked at My Blue Heaven bar, not too far from McWhitey's, came into the bar for a few drinks about 1:30 a.m. on the morning in question.

According to Evans, O'Neill had been at the end of the bar talking to McLaughlin. "They were talking for a while," Evans testified. "It got loud for a little bit."

He said minutes later, McLaughlin, who has been charged with O'Neill's murder, went behind the bar, grabbed a baseball bat and swung it at O'Neill several times.

Mooney backed up Evans' statement by telling the Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni that McLaughlin beat O'Neill with the bat about six times after what he believes was an argument.

Neither Mooney nor Evans were able to determine what the argument was about.

Assistant district attorney, Mark Gilson asked Mooney was he sure McLaughlin killed O'Neill with a baseball bat.Mooney replied, "Yes."

Mooney said he went back downstairs twice to retrieve more drink. Once he said he saw Samuel Toy, who has been charged with criminal conspiracy, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence, pull O'Neill's body across the flower toward a blue tarp.

The second time, Mooney stated that he saw Toy, 44, mopping the floor. Toy often did odd jobs for McLaughlin around the bar.

O'Neill, who hailed from Duncairn Parade in the New Lodge area of Belfast city, is believed to have gone to McWhitey's for a drink after his shift ended at My Blue Heaven on Thursday, January 3.

O'Neill's body, wrapped in tarp and duct tape, was discovered by his partner Bonnie and brother in the basement of the bar after they found his grey Ford Taurus car parked across the street.

O'Neill, who is survived by Bonnie and four children, had been a bartender at My Blue Heaven for 13 years. He came to the U.S. nearly 30 years ago.

At the time of his death, a message from O'Neill's son, Seamus, appeared in the family notices section of the Irish News, a daily newspaper in Northern Ireland. It read, "Dad, I wonder if you realize how much I'll miss you so, or how I try to understand why you had to go. I'll sit and think of you with tears falling from my eyes because you were taken so suddenly and no time to say goodbyes."

Police picked up McLaughlin on Friday, January 11, at a hotel in Coopersburg just north of Quakertown, on Route 309 in Pennsylvania after a warrant was issued for his arrest.