Jealous former lover loses appeal for shooting new beau

He stalked her from the Gold Coast to Toowoomba and back before he pounced with a pump action shotgun

Shooting victim Marko Marjanovic being taken to hospital after an incident at his mother's home in Cedarwood Court, Robina on November 26, 2011. Picture: ROSS MICHAEL

A TWEED Heads man who stalked his former girlfriend to Toowoomba and back with a private investigator before shooting her new beau has lost his appeal.

Robert Kingsley Corowa hired Ipswich investigator Dean Merrell to follow Louise Ray, then aged 22, around the Gold Coast while she did property inspections.

Corowa had told Mr Merrell he needed to confront Ms Ray about his suspicions she was in a relationship with another man.

They followed her all the way to Toowoomba where they watched her pick up new boyfriend Marko Marjanovic who was a FIFO worker working out Roma way for two weeks.

Overcome by jealousy, Corowa later confronted Mr Marjanovic outside his mother's Robina home and fired a pump action shotgun at him until he escaped inside.

Corowa was last year sentenced to 12 years and 228 days in jail for attempted murder but appealed the conviction, arguing the guilty verdict was unsafe and unsatisfactory.

He told the Queensland Court of Appeal he used "bird shot" to frighten his victim, not with an intention to kill.

The Crown argued the jury had clear directions that nothing less than an intent to kill would suffice in convicting Corowa for attempted murder.

In a judgment handed down on Friday, Justice Roslyn Atkinson said it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of Cowora's intention to kill Mr Marjanovic.

Robina Shooting November 2011

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The trial jury heard Ms Ray had been in a relationship with Corowa from age 15 or 16 but they broke up at the end of 2010. She received a text message in May 2011 saying: "I will slit your throat if another man touches your body or you strip".

The shooting happened in November of that year, a few months after Ms Ray began dating Mr Marjanovic, whose father was a high ranking office-holder in the Bandidos bikie gang.

They had both received threatening text messages from Corowa in the lead-up.

Mr Marjanovic had about 50 lesions from the pellets, a car had 175 pellet strikes and trees and walls also had damage.

Scientific officer Shane Everist told the jury at trial how the shots fired at short distances had the potential to kill depending on the angle and parts of the body hit. - NewsRegional