Robert James Wagner loses appeal over murder of uncle Gerhard Wagner

A Queensland man who murdered his wealthy uncle and cut up his body with an axe has lost his appeal against conviction.

Gerhard Wagner was murdered and dismembered by his nephew in 1999. Picture: Supplied

A Queensland man who murdered and dismembered his wealthy uncle in 1999 has lost his appeal against conviction.

Robert James Wagner, who is aged in his 60s, was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 after being found guilty of murdering his then-61-year-old uncle Gerhard Wagner.

His trial in Brisbane’s Supreme Court heard Wagner had invited his uncle to his Ashgrove home, murdered him, used an axe to dismember his body and then dumped the remains in the Glass House Mountains.

A reinvigoration of the cold-case investigation led to Robert Wagner’s arrest in 2014.

At the time Wagner owed his uncle $84,000 and was in financial difficulty.

He appealed his conviction on 10 grounds including the guilty verdict was unreasonable, judicial error and undisclosed evidence.

The appeal was unanimously dismissed on Tuesday morning by Court of Appeal Justices’ Elizabeth Wilson, Jean Dalton and Lincoln Crowley.

Originally published as Robert James Wagner loses appeal over murder of uncle Gerhard Wagner