Zacharia Josef Bruckner set to face Adelaide court over alleged murder plot
A court is set to hear allegations of hit men, axe attacks, pillow suffocation and tangled ex-lovers in wild alleged murder plot.
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The man at the centre of a complicated alleged murder plot has touched down in Adelaide following his arrest in Queensland earlier in the week.
Zacharia Josef Bruckner, 36, was led through Adelaide Airport just after midday under police escort after he was slapped with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges for his alleged role in a brutal attack on Jonathan Hawtin in 2017.
The police allege Mr Buckner and his former lover Dr Lisa Lines conspired to kill Mr Hawtin, who is Dr Lines’ ex partner.
Dr Lines, an academic with a PhD in social sciences from Flinders University and the founder of Capstone Editing, was arrested on Wednesday in the small Pacific nation of Palau.
Mr Bruckner allegedly attacked Mr Hawtin with an axe at an Adelaide Hills address in 2017, leaving Mr Hawtin a tetraplegic.
Mr Bruckner then allegedly shot himself to make out as though the alleged assault on Mr Hawtin was in self-defence.
Prosecutors originally charged Mr Hawtin with attempted murder, believing he had tried to kill Mr Bruckner after he started a relationship with Dr Lines.
Mr Hawtin was acquitted of all charges following a trial at the South Australian Supreme Court in 2019.
In 2020, investigators with South Australia’s Major Crime Investigation Branch reassessed the case and now allege it is Mr Bruckner and Dr Lines who are guilty of the shocking blast of violence.
Dr Lines, an academic with a PhD in social sciences from Flinders University and the founder of Capstone Editing, was arrested on Wednesday in the small Pacific nation of Palau.
She will face charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to murder.
Dr Lines shares two children with Mr Hawtin and she left Australia in 2020.
It is understood Mr Bruckner met Dr Lines in 2017 when he found a job at Capstone Editing.
He moved in with Dr Lines and Mr Hawtin in Adelaide and the police allege Mr Bruckner formed a romantic relationship with Dr Lines.
The Courier Mail reports Queensland police prosecutor Eddie Fraser told a Brisbane court on Thursday Dr Lines allegedly coerced Mr Bruckner to murder Mr Hawtin.
The police allege Dr Lines tried to organise another attempt on Hawtin’s life as he was lying in hospital after the attack, allegedly encouraging a female friend to smother him with a pillow in his bed.
It is understood the female was stopped by hospital security guards and fled the scene.
Mr Fraser also alleges from December 2021 through to this year, Dr Lines and Mr Bruckner conspired to have a hit man kill Mr Hawtin and his mother Rohnda, with undercover police operatives securing evidence of the alleged plot.
Mr Fraser said the police had recordings of alleged “communication” between Dr Lines and persons posing as a hit man.
Mr Fraser presented the court with details of the alleged 2017 attack, alleging Mr Bruckner told a person known to police he had attacked Mr Hawtin with a hatchet and that Mr Bruckner thought Mr Hawtin would not survive because of the amount of blood loss.
“Bruckner explained that Lines entered the garage upon hearing the gunshot, Lines then called triple 0 and while on the phone in the garage Hawtin made a noise so Bruckner struck him two further times with the hatchet,” Mr Fraser said.
“In October 2022 Lines then engaged with a person known to police and stated she knew Bruckner was going to attack Hawtin in the garage and her part of the plan was to stay inside the house.”
Mr Bruckner was due to appear at Adelaide Magistrates Court before Magistrate Benjamin Sale on Friday but the case was pushed back to Monday.
Originally published as Zacharia Josef Bruckner set to face Adelaide court over alleged murder plot
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