A 30-year-old man has joined his older brother in prison to await sentencing for his part in the brutal murder of Matthew Goddard (41) in east Belfast in Christmas 2014.
As James Henry Turner, from Dunraven Court in the city, was due to go on trial yesterday, defence QC Patrick Lyttle asked that he be re-arraigned.
Having pleaded guilty, Turner was remanded back into custody.
His 37-year-old brother William Turner, from Glenea Grove in Belfast, pleaded guilty to the murder last Friday.
Mr Goddard was found in the living room of his home in Chobham Street on Christmas Eve 2014.
He had been the victim of a brutal and sustained attack, even being beaten with his own electric guitar.
A third man, Christian Walker of Ribble Street, Belfast was acquitted of the murder after the prosecution offered no evidence.
This had followed Walker's guilty pleas to perverting the course of justice by providing the Turner brothers with false alibis and conspiring with them to pervert justice and the police investigation into the killing.
Prosecution QC Ciaran Murphy told Mr Justice Treacy that in light of Walker's guilty pleas he was entitled to be acquitted of the murder charge.
Similarly James Turner was acquitted of attacking another man when the prosecution offered no evidence.
His brother is awaiting sentence on this charge, having also pleaded guilty.
Walker was released on continuing bail while pre-sentence reports are prepared before all three men are sentenced next month.
Defence QC Charles McCreanor said both psychiatric and psychological reports on Walker had already been lodged with the court.
Mr Lyttle, for Turner, said his client had a been suffering from a long-time brain injury and that it was intended that a psychiatric report in him will also be made available to the court.
For the prosecution, Mr Murphy said they would be providing victim impact reports from Mr Goddard's wife Maureen and immediate family.
