Alyssa Marie Beckhouse found not guilty after baseball bat assault trial
A Kingaroy woman accused of bashing a man in the head with a baseball bat and hitting his long-term partner in the arms during a fight in 2022 has walked free from court.
Police & Courts
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A Kingaroy woman charged with bashing a man over the head with a baseball bat and injuring a woman after a fight over a small loan has walked free.
Alyssa Marie Beckhouse, 35, was charged with one count of grievous bodily harm and two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm armed with an offensive weapon after she and her partner got into a fight with another couple on November 17, 2022.
Stevie-Lea Collier, 30, and Trent Andrew James Stewart, 36, were both injured in the altercation which the court heard was triggered by an accusation that Ms Beckhouse owed them about $150.
The three-day trial was held in the Kingaroy District Court earlier this month.
Ms Beckhouse’s lawyer Tristan Carlos encouraged the jury to keep an open mind when considering the evidence and said, “As often as it is, things aren’t as they seem.”
He told the court Ms Beckhouse only attacked Ms Collier and Mr Stewart because she was protecting her partner, Remy Anthony Grace, 27.
Crown Prosecutor Sarah McCray said she believed the defence of acting with the aim of protecting Mr Grace didn’t fit this case.
“The Crown says the events occurred that day in the way you will hear the witnesses testify, and Ms Beckhouse didn’t have any lawful reasonable defence for striking Mr Stewart and Ms Collier in the way that she did,” she said.
The court heard Ms Beckhouse and Mr Grace had borrowed small amounts of money, between $50 and $100, from Ms Collier in the past but had always paid it back.
A few weeks before the altercation, Ms Beckhouse went to Ms Collier’s house with a male friend, who purchased about $150 of marijuana from Ms Collier “on tick”, with the promise he would pay it back the following week.
It was further alleged that when he did not repay Ms Collier the full amount on time and she was unable to get in touch with him, she turned to Ms Beckhouse to repay it.
However, Ms Beckhouse refused to pay the debt because she said she was not the one who owed it.
This resulted in dozens of messages back-and-forth between Ms Collier, Ms Beckhouse and Mr Grace, which included angry messages and voicemails from Ms Collier demanding the money be repaid.
Mr Grace told Ms Collier she was “going off at the wrong person” and they had nothing to do with the money, after which the court heard her messages became more aggressive and threatening.
In one voicemail read out loud to the court she said, “Don’t say I’m f****** with the wrong person. Remy, do you know I’m holding my man back right now with a f****** baseball bat in his hand? Answer my phone call.”
In another message she said, “You’ve woken the f****** bear. I’m roaring now.”
Ms Collier said she was “really pissed off” about not being paid back but that she only became aggressive in her messages after Ms Beckhouse and Mr Grace became aggressive with her over phone calls.
On the day of the fight, the court heard Ms Collier contacted the pair asking if they knew when she was going to be repaid and they told her again they didn’t know and it had nothing to do with them.
She then sent a message saying, “See you soon, when Trent gets back from dropping the kids off”.
Ms Collier denied calling the couple and threatening them over the phone after Mr Carlos suggested she said she would come to their house with a car load of people and take their stuff.
She said they only drove past Ms Beckhouse’s home that morning because they were running errands in the neighbourhood.
The court heard Ms Collier and Mr Stewart drove past Ms Beckhouse’s house after they had dropped their children off at school and were on their way to a friend’s place to pick something up.
Mr Carlos alleged the pair waved a baseball out the window and made gun signals with their hands, which Ms Collier denied.
As they drove past the home, Mr Grace was allegedly standing out the front without a shirt on and threw a baseball bat at their car.
Mr Stewart stopped the car, and Ms Collier got out and confronted Mr Grace.
Both individuals had baseball bats and began to fight each other on the nature strip.
When testifying in court, Ms Collier said they “gone at it” and wrestled around on the ground for a while.
“Me and Remy were in a rumble on the ground, hitting each other with our closed fists,” she said.
“Then Remy started biting me and scratching me. Trent jumped out at the car.
“We were all screaming and yelling at each other.”
Video evidence taken by an eye witness appeared to show Ms Collier and Mr Stewart both attacking Mr Grace at the same time.
It was then that Ms Beckhouse approached the group, picking up one of the baseball bats and hitting Mr Stewart in the head, leaving him with a 8cm gash on his forehead that left a part of his skull exposed, the court was told.
“Ally come on over and (hit the) baseball bat over Trent’s head,” Ms Collier said.
“All I remember hearing is the pop, the blood, fainting.”
Ms Collier claimed Ms Beckhouse then hit her with the bat across her arms as she tried to defend herself, however Ms Beckhouse’s defence denied this version of events and said she only pushed the bat against Ms Collier’s arms.
Ms McCray argued the background of the events, the tensions between the couples and the threats that had been made should not be the main focus in the case, and asked the jury to focus on the events of that morning.
She said there was nothing to justify Ms Beckhouse hitting Mr Stewart in the head or hitting Ms Collier in the arms as they were not posing a threat at that time.
Mr Carlos argued that his client had “every right to be fearful that morning” after the string of menacing messages and voicemails they had received from Ms Collier, including a message earlier that day saying “see you soon”.
The jury deliberated for around three hours before declaring Ms Beckhouse not guilty on all charges.
Mr Grace was also charged in relation to the incident and appeared in Kingaroy District Court on March 31.
He pleaded guilty to one count of common assault and one count of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed.
Mr Grace had previously served 86 days in prison, which the judge took into account, and sentenced him to 12 months with a parole release date of March 31, 2025.
Ms Collier and Mr Stewart were not charged in relation to the incident.
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