Eden Waugh: Jason Pikula-Carroll has ‘confirmed’ he murdered Canberra artist
A man faces a long time in jail after finally admitting to the “cold-hearted” murder of a young Canberra artist, shot dead inside his own home.
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Jason Pikula-Carroll now faces a hefty jail sentence after abandoning an extraordinary bid to vacate a series of guilty pleas, including for the cold-blooded murder of Canberra artist Eden Waugh.
A dishevelled and overweight Pikula-Caroll appeared in the ACT Supreme Court wearing a prison-issued jumper on Tuesday where his barrister, Duncan Berents, confirmed his client maintained his guilty plea.
Pikula-Carroll, 24, had earlier this year sacked his legal team and flagged that he would try to convince Justice John Burns to vacate the pleas and contest the charges at trial.
Tuesday’s development means Pikula-Carroll admits his guilt, and will face sentencing proceedings which will inevitably see him handed a long jail sentence.
Eden Waugh was murdered during a drug-linked home invasion, in which Pikula-Carroll’s co-accused, Peter Forster-Jones, fired a shotgun through the artist’s front door, which he was crouched behind.
Forster-Jones is serving 30 years in jail for his role in the “cold-hearted” murder, with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years.
Police scored a crucial breakthrough in the investigation into Mr Waugh’s murder when Forster-Jones was recorded boasting to an undercover cop about his role in the crime.
Pikula-Carroll is yet to admit the precise details of his offending, but the courts have previously heard he and Forster-Jones stepped over Mr Waugh’s lifeless body and ransacked his Windeyer Crt, Watson, flat for cash and drugs after murdering him.
Mr Waugh’s murder, Justice Michael Elkaim said last year, was “pervaded by the evil of drug use”.
Forster-Jones had previously said of he and Pikula-Carroll’s murder of Mr Waugh, in a conversation secretly recorded by police, that “no one really deserves … for that to happen to ‘em in their own house”.
Following Forster-Jones’s jailing, Mr Waugh’s father, David Waugh said his son was “not without faults”.
“But he was such a caring, kind-hearted and talented young man,” Mr Waugh said.
“He did not deserve to die, especially in such a violent cold-hearted and cowardly manner.”
Pikula-Carroll’s matter will return to court on July.
Justice Burns will sentence him in October.