Tony Leonard Rice to stand trial over alleged hit and run which killed Jimmy Murphy outside Brunswick Hotel in Rockhampton

The man accused of hitting adored Rockhampton man Jimmy Murphy with his vehicle outside a Rockhampton pub and leaving the scene has been released on bail. The decision comes as a woman in the vehicle recounts what she says happened.

A witness has told a court passengers in the car involved in the 2019 hit and run that killed a 76-year-old man in Rockhampton were high on meth and didn’t believe her when she told them they had run over someone.

The court also heard evidence in the case would include an audio recording of a phone conversation between accused driver Tony Leonard Rice and a woman, from while he was in jail on a return-to-prison warrant, where the woman allegedly threatened Mr Rice she would tell police he was the driver in the fatal incident if he did not return her motor vehicle.

This was heard in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court on April 4 during a committal hearing where Mr Rice was ordered to stand trial in the Rockhampton District Court in the future and was granted bail after accumulating 426 days presentence custody.

Tony Leonard Rice was charged with dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm or death and leaving without providing help.

Mr Rice was 37 when he was charged in July 2020 with dangerous driving causing the death of Jimmy Murphy after Mr Murphy was allegedly run down in Archer Street at The Range on August 17, 2019.

Mr Rice allegedly left the scene without providing Mr Murray assistance.

Defence lawyer Nick Crawford said the allegation was his client was talking on the phone while driving and the car left its lane and struck Mr Murphy.

He described it as an “inattention dangerous driving” incident.

Mr Crawford cross examined two witnesses in the case during the committal hearing – one who claims to have been picked up from Browne Park by the vehicle allegedly involved in the hit and run incident, and another who was recorded in a phone conversation threatening Mr Rice.

The passenger told the court she was picked up by a purple vehicle, which had been arranged by a third party, and she sat between two people she knew in the back seat but did not know the driver or the front seat passenger.

She claimed the driver pulled over on Murray Street near the Rockhampton Leagues Club and the three other passengers injected methamphetamines.

The woman went on to say they were then driven to the Brunswick Hotel to get a female passenger a premix Jack Daniels bottle from the bottle shop.

She said that as they left, she felt the car hit the gutter and had seen Mr Murphy step out into the gutter.

She claimed she told the others in the car they had hit a person, but they didn’t believe her due to her mental health history.

The woman claimed she knew Mr Murphy only as “Jimmy” and through her stepmother who had played poker with him.

The second witness cross examined claimed she could not remember much from that period in her life.

“I was under the influence that bad my head was all over the place,” she said.

She added she was in a really bad place at the time but was now “going down the right track”.

She was the woman who was recorded threatening Mr Rice during a phone conversation was also recorded by police body worn camera at another time saying she thought Mr Rice was a passenger.

Police prosecutor Clancy Fox told the court the prosecution case consisted of witness statements from nine people plus 11 police officers, two Telstra employees and a forensic scientist.

He also told the court the evidence included the audio recording of the phone call, other telecommunications evidence, taxi logs, phone screenshots, toxicology reports of Mr Murphy, Mr Murphy’s autopsy report and photographs of his body and photographs of the vehicle which allegedly hit Mr Murphy as well as multiple interviews between Mr Rice and police.

Other evidence includes CCTV footage from the Dean Street IGA supermarket, the BP service station on Albert Street and the Brunswick Hotel along with phone records from Capricornia Correctional Centre, body worn footage, transaction records from the Brunswick Hotel and Mr Murphy’s death certificate.

Mr Crawford said it was the defence’s case that there were significant issues with the prosecution case, including it being based on circumstantial evidence, questions about the credibility of witnesses and that one witness placed another person behind the wheel at the time it struck Mr Murphy.

He said it would be about 18 months before a trial would run in the district court and the likely sentence if his client was found guilty would not exceed the need to spend any more time in custody than the 426 days Mr Rice had spent in prison now.