Stabbing “shattered” council worker’s life, attacker jailed

A man who stabbed a council worker in the neck, leaving his carotid artery almost completely severed during an unprovoked attack on Brisbane’s southside, has been sentenced.

A man who stabbed a council employee in the neck in an “explosive” and “heinous” unprovoked attack will have to serve six years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

John Matthew Fitzgerald, 42, was found guilty of the horrific attack on Brisbane City Council draftsman Josue Natanael Espinosa-Cassanelli who was left fighting for life after he was stabbed in the neck at a Woolloongabba unit in 2019.

During a trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court in March, witnesses described how they watched in shock as “Fitzy” walked through the door and plunged a knife into his victim’s neck without saying a word just before 11pm on April 18, 2019.

Crown Prosecutor Dzenita Balic told the court on Thursday the defendant and victim were not known to each other and the attack was a “gratuitous” act of violence.

“Your honour would come to the conclusion in my submission that a sentence of about 10 years’ imprisonment is appropriate in the circumstances,” Ms Balic said.

“The nature of the offence here is of such an explosive heinousness against a person who was unprotected…”.

The court heard the victim’s carotid artery and jugular vein were almost completely severed and he suffered a cerebral artery stroke after significant blood loss. He was in a coma for three weeks and spent six months in hospital.

Park Road where the victim was stabbed on 21st April 2019. (AAP Image/Richard Waugh)

In a victim impact statement tendered to the court, the victim revealed he was unable to return to his work as a council draftsman and his life had been shattered by the attack.

Mr Espinosa-Cassanelli said he suffered numbness and constant pain, struggled to communicate, could no longer read books, maps or transport timetables and needed help with his finances, bills and correspondence.

He said he was afraid to go out for fear of being attacked and could no longer spend time with his friends because he was embarrassed by his condition.

“I find it difficult to make new friends and I feel lonely and bored most of the time,” Mr Espinosa-Cassanelli’s victim impact statement said.

“I feel worthless and less than I was before.

“I wake up with a sense of impending doom some mornings, I no longer remember my dreams.”

Justice Brown said without medical intervention the victim almost certainly would have died and he now suffered from life long and life changing disabilities.

“Your actions that night have had a devastating impact on him and his family,” she said.

Justice Brown accepted submissions that Fitzgerald had suffered an abusive childhood and that he was a “damaged” man who was poorly equipped to cope with life outside of prison.

Fitzgerald was found guilty of a charge of malicious act with intent after a one-week trial in March.

Justice Brown today sentenced him to nine years and six months’ imprisonment but did not impose a serious violent offender declaration which would have required him to serve 80 per cent of that sentence behind bars.

However Justice Brown ordered he not be eligible for parole until April 2025 after he has served six years in jail. Fitzgerald has already spent 775 days in custody.