‘Jealous’ Alexander Adam Howell fired shot into former partner’s couch during argument, court hears

A man behaving “jealously, erratically and appallingly” fired a bullet through his former partner’s couch with a rusty 100-year-old gun while high on cocaine, a court has heard.

A jealous man fired a bullet from a 100-year-old gun through his former partner’s couch while high on cocaine, a court has heard.

Alexander Adam Howell, 31, of Christie Downs, arrived at the woman’s western suburbs home early on December 13, 2019 wanting to know who she had spent time with the night before.

He then revealed he had a gun and fired a shot through the woman’s couch, leaving a hole and bullet wedged in the floor. Howell pleaded guilty to charges of discharging a firearm intending to injure, annoy or frighten and aggravated possessing a firearm without a licence, but was found not guilty of attempted murder.

At trial, the Supreme Court had heard Howell and the woman had been in a “tumultuous, dysfunctional and mutually abusive relationship” which ended in late November 2019 due to his infidelity.

The 100 year old JP Sauer & Sohn self-loading pistol.

The woman had told the court Howell began constantly contacting her wanting to know who she was with.

Carmen Matteo SC, prosecuting, had told the court Howell was “irate, calling her a b---h” prior to firing the gun – a 100-year-old JP Sauer and Sohn 1913 single action self-loading pistol – into the couch to show it was real.

The woman had also claimed Howell pushed her face first into the couch and placed the barrel of the gun behind her ear before telling her she was “about to die”.

She claimed she heard a “click” and that the gun had jammed, which Howell then tried to unjam with a fork. She then ran outside and screamed for neighbours to call the police. When a neighbour knocked on the door, she ran to get her baby, and then back to get her phone.

Howell fled, discarding the gun on a neighbouring roof, before falling through pergola sheeting and breaking an arm. The gun was found by a neighbour trimming overgrowth almost 18 months later, in May 2021.

In her reasons for finding Howell not guilty of attempting to kill the woman, Justice Anne Bampton, said the woman “had a flair for the dramatic”.

“To add to my concerns she may have exaggerated her evidence,” she said.

Justice Bampton said the woman had not told the triple-0 operator or police in her initial interviews that Howell had held the gun to her head and pulled the trigger.

The fact the woman went back inside to collect her phone “suggests she had the confidence to do so because she knew she was not going to be killed”, she said.

“As there is no other evidence supporting the evidence given by (the woman) regarding the matters in issue, I cannot, given the state of her evidence, accept the events unfolded or occurred as she alleged,” she said.

She found Howell was “under the influence of cocaine” and “behaving jealously, erratically and appallingly” when he went to the woman’s home. He returns to court for sentencing submissions this year.