Teah Luckwell murder: Jesse Leigh Green’s DNA found in fuse box at nearby house, court hears

DNA swabs taken from the switches of a fuse box are significant clues in the murder of Tamworth mother Teah Luckwell, a court has heard.

DNA matching the man accused of murdering young Tamworth mother Teah Luckwell was found on the fuse box switches of the house of a woman who lived nearby and who reported a man charging at her door the same night, a court has heard.

The woman woke in the early hours of March 28, 2018, to discover her ceiling fan had ceased rotating, prosecutor Brian Costello told the NSW Supreme Court last week.

When she went outside to check the fuse box, he said, all the switches were set to off.

The court heard a short time later, she looked out her front door and saw a man, who proceeded to charge at her house with a weapon that looked like a bat.

He crashed the weapon through the fly screen and hit the wooden door just as the woman slammed it shut, Mr Costello said.

Jesse Leigh Green has been charged with the young mother’s murder.

Ms Luckwell was 22 when she was found lying in a pool of blood just inside the front door of her Tamworth unit after 9pm on March 28, 2018.

She had three significant stab wounds, one of them fatally piercing an artery in her neck.

Jesse Leigh Green, her former neighbour, has been charged with her murder.

Prosecutors allege he embarked on a crime rampage that night, starting late on March 27 with a robbery in Oxley Vale before murdering Ms Luckwell at about 4.20am on March 28 and charging at the woman’s door nearby some 40 minutes later.

Mr Green, 30, has been declared unfit to stand trial and has been taken to have entered not guilty pleas at a special hearing before Justice Stephen Campbell.

The NSW Supreme Court heard on Monday his DNA matched swabs taken from three fuse box switches at the woman’s home, close to the unit where Ms Luckwell was found dead.

The DNA was more than 100 billion times more likely to originate from Mr Green than from an unknown person, according to a forensics report.

Prosecutors allege Mr Green switched off the woman’s power at about 4.10am and charged at her door with a weapon less than an hour later.

Mr Green had told friend Bennie McCarthy he was going to the home to take a ute, for which the keys had previously been stolen, Mr Costello said.

Mr McCarthy told the court on Monday afternoon he recalled Mr Green coming back to his flat on March 28 after trying to steal the ute and explaining he had not taken the vehicle as a dog had barked and “a fella” came out of the house.

Mr Green said he had stabbed a knife into the door, Mr McCarthy said.

Mr McCarthy agreed he was the one who had broken into the house and stolen the ute keys on about March 25, but denied going there on the night Ms Luckwell was killed.

He flatly denied under questioning from Mr Green’s barrister having anything to do with Ms Luckwell’s death.

Mr Costello argued the door incident was significant because it indicated Mr Green’s “hostile state of mind” towards the occupant of a house he tried to enter that night.

The scene at the woman’s house was “consistent” with Ms Luckwell’s unit given she was attacked with a weapon just inside her home and her lock was busted, suggesting significant force was applied to the door, the prosecutor said.

Paramedics were called to Ms Luckwell’s unit at 9.40pm on March 28, 2018. Picture: Ashleigh Gleeson

Paramedic Daniel Kearney told the court he was called to Ms Luckwell’s unit at 9.40pm on March 28.

She was surrounded by a large amount of dark, congealed blood that had dried in places, suggesting it had been there for some time, Mr Kearney said.

The crown’s circumstantial case uses CCTV and evidence from neighbours who heard a scream about 4.20am to place Mr Green near Ms Luckwell’s unit that night.

Mr Green’s barrister, Stuart Bouveng, said the time of Ms Luckwell’s death was a live issue and there were 10 other people whose potential motive and means to kill her must be examined.

The hearing continues.

Originally published as Teah Luckwell murder: Jesse Leigh Green’s DNA found in fuse box at nearby house, court hears