North Gosford murder trial: Scott David Weaver stabbed Larry White, 67, with hunting knife a court hears
UPDATE: A man charged with murdering a much older man in a “jealous rage” could have been acting in self defence because his alleged victim was known to keep a knife handy, a court has heard.
Central Coast
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The case against Scott David Weaver, charged with murdering another man inside a North Gosford unit in 2019, comes down to what happened in the “15 seconds” between when he walked out of a bedroom and the victim was found lying mortally wounded on the floor, his lawyer has told a court.
And there was no way the Crown could prove beyond the onerous level of ‘beyond reasonable doubt” the now 40-year-old Mr Weaver did not inflict the fatal wounds while defending himself from the much older man, his lawyer added.
Mr Weaver’s barrister Tony Evers gave his closing address on Wednesday where he told the 14-person jury that after four weeks of evidence there was very little in dispute as to what happened on the morning of December 20, 2019.
However the main point of contention came down to what transpired in the “15 seconds” between when Mr Weaver was seen leaving a bedroom of the North Gosford unit and when his alleged victim, 67-year-old Larry Francis White, was found fatally stabbed in the living room.
He told the court Mr Weaver walked out of the bedroom he was sharing with his girlfriend Yoland Howlett having taken a large 20cm hunting knife off her when she threatened self harm.
Mr Evers said Mr Weaver may have been angry and jealous at the thought Ms Howlett had been sleeping with Mr White behind his back when he went into the loungeroom to confront Mr White and uttered the words “so you want to f..k my missus do ya?”.
However Mr Evers said it was well known Mr White kept a small knife near him for “protection” and could have picked up the knife and threatened Mr Weaver first.
The court heard Mr White’s knife was found under a newspaper at the scene.
Mr Evers said it was “not implausible” Mr White picked up the knife and “thrust” it at Mr Weaver who reacted in self defence.
He said the Crown stated Mr Weaver was in such a jealous rage at the time that he intended to cause Mr White serious harm or death but neither Ms Howlett nor another witness in an adjacent room heard him.
“Is that someone that out of control?” Mr Evers asked the jury.
He said Mr Weaver was younger and stronger than Mr White, which explained why he escaped uninjured from the confrontation, and tried to perform first aid.
Mr Evers said the jury should also disregard all of Ms Howlett’s evidence because she received a discount on her sentence for agreeing to testify against Mr Weaver.
The court heard Ms Howlett pleaded guilty to one count of being an accessory after the fact to murder and was sentenced to a minimum of 15 months jail.
PREVIOUSLY FROM WEDNESDAY, MAY 11
Scott David Weaver was a self-confessed liar who made up different versions of events to avoid implicating himself, including that he murdered an unarmed man, a court has heard.
The 40-year-old is on trial in the Newcastle Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to the murder of Larry Francis White, who was found in his North Gosford unit with six stab wounds to his wrists, legs and chest.
After four weeks of evidence, the Crown prosecutor gave his closing address to the jury on Wednesday where he told the court Mr Weaver confronted Mr White over unfounded allegations the 67-year-old had been sleeping with Mr Weaver’s girlfriend.
The Crown prosecutor said Mr Weaver had earlier stabbed his girlfriend Yoland Howlett in the stomach after accusing her of cheating on him before going out into the loungeroom of Mr White’s unit.
“All of those knife injuries were caused to two people that the accused was particularly angry and upset with, all seven of those knife injuries were to the two people the accused was utterly convinced were cheating on him behind his back,” the Crown prosecutor said.
The court heard Mr Weaver told police Ms Howlett had suffered a small puncture wound to her stomach after she threatened self harm and he grabbed the knife off her, while Mr White had been the aggressor and Mr Weaver had simply defended himself.
“Members of the jury to accidentally cause [those] knife injuries to two people Mr Weaver was very upset with in the one morning is either a lot of bad luck or rather implausibly a large amount of bad luck the Crown would say, or Mr Weaver has simply lied and lied again for the third distinct time about what really happened on the morning of 20 December 2019.”
The court heard Ms Howlett was living in a spare room of Mr White’s unit when Mr Weaver started to reside there, with all three regular users of heroin and other drugs.
The Crown prosecutor told the court Mr White was looking for help to get Mr Weaver to move out without any “confrontation” at the time and Mr Weaver, then aged 38, was much younger, stronger and bigger than the “frail” 67-year-old.
He said acting in a “jealous rage” Mr Weaver challenged Ms Howlett about her alleged infidelity and “when he didn’t get the answers he wanted” stabbed her in the stomach.
The court heard Ms Howlett left the bedroom and asked Mr White for help because Mr Weaver thought she had been “sleeping around again” and was going to “stab me a hundred times more”.
“So on the 20th of December 2019 acting on that jealousy the accused armed himself with a knife and confronted Mr White, saying something to him like `so you want to f..k my missus do ya?’,” the Crown prosecutor said.
The court heard Mr White was sitting in a lounge chair and suffered “defensive injuries” consistent with putting his arms up to protect himself and kicking out his legs.
In an excerpt of a letter Mr Weaver wrote to Ms Howlett from custody, read out to the court, Mr Weaver apologised for stabbing her.
“If you had have been loyal to me I would never have hurt you, you know that right and that cut on your stomach was an accident,” Mr Weaver wrote in the letter.
“I didn’t mean it, I didn’t think it would hurt you, I’m sorry for that.”
Mr Weaver was never charged with stabbing Ms Howlett.
He also wrote that she was his “property”.
“I hope you forgive me for hurting you physically, I get so jealous,” he wrote.
“I’m obsessed with you, you’re my property only.”
The case continues.
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