Nathan Price shot Parkes man dead after fight about loud dogs

A man claims he was protecting himself and his mother when he shot dead a drug-fuelled, axe-handle swinging neighbour during a fight about barking dogs.

A man who killed an angry young drug-fuelled, axe-swinging dad during a dramatic dispute about barking dogs made the situation more “toxic” by bringing a gun into his front yard to defend himself and his mother, a court has heard.

Nathan Joseph Price, 20, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court over the alleged murder of 25-year-old Jesse Herridge at Parkes in regional NSW on June 24, 2019.

Mr Price, who was 18 at the time he shot Mr Herridge dead, pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges. He claims the shooting was an act of self defence also done to defend his mother Tracey Simpson.

On the final day of the Judge-alone trial Crown prosecutor Liam Shaw and defence barrister Ian Nash summed up their cases before Justice Stephen Rothman.

Mr Shaw said all parties agreed the confrontation started after a person told Mr Herridge’s dogs to “shut the f*** up” and he called the person a “red-headed s***”.

When the person complained to Ms Simpson, she walked out the front of her home on Porter Street and a verbal dispute between her and Mr Herridge, who lived nearby in the same street, ensued.

Nathan Price. Picture: Facebook

Mr Shaw said evidence given by Mr Herridge’s girlfriend Stefanie Leonard had suggested Mr Herridge only obtained the axe handle after Mr Price went into his home to retrieve a gun.

“The Crown points to the demeanour of Ms Leonard as she gives evidence, the Crown’s submission is that she was a compelling witness in the way she gave her account,” Mr Shaw said.

The court heard a claim Mr Price previously made, that he warned Mr Herridge to drop the axe handle during the dispute, was not supported by people who gave evidence during the trial.

“The Crown notes no other witness said they heard any conversational warning and they describe the shooting to be Jesse Herridge seeing Nathan Price and moving rapidly towards him raising the axe handle with Nathan Price discharging the firearm.

“There is no support for the accused account that he gave any warning to the deceased. There’s no support at all … no witness says there was any verbal warning.”

“By bringing the loaded firearm to the dispute, the accused by those actions, was creating a more toxic situation and his actions from then on can be seen as not truly falling in self defence.”

Mr Shaw said Mr Price could have taken other steps to defend himself and his mother who were approached by Mr Herridge on their property.

“Rushing inside at that time, rather than grabbing anything that was nearby, such as a bin or a garden tool or hose, must relate to what the accused saw as the nature of the risk of harm to the other people at the front of 3 Porter Street.

“The fact that the accused turned his mind to taking a golf club out to number 3, he says that was impractical, but the Crown says in fact it would have been very practical … that’s a more proportionate implement to bring to the fray than a loaded lethal shortened firearm.

“There was a plethora of different options available to him and in fact, the accused did turn his mind to those options, but nevertheless actively chose the one that was the most explosive because his intention went beyond … self defence and the defence of another. He could have called the police and it’s of note, they were able to attend the street within four minutes, he could have chosen to distract Mr Herridge and got Mr Herridge to chase him away from where his mother was.”

Mr Shaw said Mr Price also “could have taken his mother’s hand and got her to come inside” or yelled out to neighbours for help.

“In Australia we’re not living in a society where it’s acceptable to bring loaded shortened firearms to a dispute such as the one faced by the accused and his mother,” Mr Shaw said.

“The Crown’s submission is that to do so, is to act outside the law.”

Mr Nash said while the lead up to the shooting was not irrelevant, the case against Mr Price hinged on what was happening right before the shot bullet was fired.

“In the accused’s submission, the relevant time must be the time of the discharge of the firearm … to be distracted by precisely what might have been going on in the accused’s mind at the time he went into the house and picked up the firearm risks ignoring the statutory test for self-defence,” Mr Nash said.

“He didn’t bring a gun to a fight … there was no fight … there was the deceased rapidly approaching, at least in the perception of most witnesses, the accused’s mother, brandishing what was in fact the axe handle.”

Mr Nash told the court Mr Herridge had intentionally displayed threatening and aggressive behaviour towards Mr Price’s mother.

“The accused did not go in, or return into … his home to obtain a weapon, until he had seen the deceased return to the deceased’s front yard, retrieve the axe handle.

“There’s a body of evidence that is inconsistent with Ms Leonard’s account of the deceased’s attention being drawn towards the accused virtually from the get go, but rather the deceased’s attention was at least, throughout the beginning of the fatal episode, focused upon my client’s mother and that occurred in the context of a verbal dispute between the deceased and my client’s mother during which both the deceased and the mother departed the immediate front of their respective properties and moved towards each other, albeit for an apparently short distance.”

Mr Nash said when Mr Price told police a day after the shooting that he did consider retrieving a baseball bat or golf club instead of a gun, he could have been applying hindsight or expressing regret.

“The evidence strongly establishes that in his perception, at the time he returned in to grab a weapon of any kind, the deceased was aggressively and quickly approaching his property with his mother and other females in all likelihood, out the front,” Mr Nash said.

“The suggestion he did that having determined that he was somehow going to use it other than for self-defence or a deterrent, in my submission, is simply not borne out by the evidence.”

Justice Stephen Rothman reserved his judgement and said he would deliver it on September 20.

The Supreme Court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

EARLIER – FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6

A 20-year-old man told police he “got shitty” with a neighbour who called his mother a sl*t over a dispute about barking dogs and was shot dead minutes later.

In a police video played before the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, Nathan Joseph Price explained the moments leading up to the death of 25-year-old father-of-one Jesse Herridge at Parkes on June 24, 2019.

Mr Price, who was 18 years old at the time of the shooting, has pleaded not guilty to murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

He claims he acted in self-defence and was also defending his mother.

Mr Price appeared in court for the second day of his trial via audiovisual link from Parklea Correctional Centre, where he along with 159 inmates have tested posted to Covid-19.

In the police video, Mr Price told officers he had only been living at the Porter St property in Parkes where Mr Herridge was killed for about three months.

“I’ll take ya’s inside and tell ya’s every single f****** detail man,” Mr Price said as he walked police around the front yard where Mr Herridge was shot.

Before the shooting, Mr Price said his day was relatively uneventful and he had only “went down town, got a packet of smokes” and then lost his wallet before coming home around lunch time.

Later that afternoon, Mr Price recalled sitting on a couch inside his house when he saw a person “bawling” because “old mate’s dog up here was goin off”.

“As my mum does, she protects everyone and has to go out and find out what’s going on,” Mr Price told police.

“She’s walked out, copped a mouthful from this so-called Jesse fulla

“When mum’s in her mood there’s no controlling her … just a protective mood … she was trying to find out what was going on.”

Nathan Price has been remanded in custody since his arrest. Picture: Facebook

Mr Price said he had “no clue” who his mother was talking to and after he went outside he became concerned about Mr Herridge’s behaviour.

“All I heard from inside was him yelling and screaming out ‘that gronk wanna tell my dog to shut up, f****** get up here and have a go ya slut’.

“I got shitty, I didn’t say anything, I didn’t do nothing, I just stood around and waited for a second and then he yelled out something else to mum, I can’t remember.”

At that point Mr Herridge was still near his house, about 50 metres away from Mr Price’s house.

According to Mr Price, Mr Herridge was seen walking behind a car and picking up what looked like a “metal baseball bat” from underneath it.

“After he grabbed that my mum screamed and said ‘Nathan he’s got this’ and all of a sudden he’s started to sprint towards us,” Mr Price told police.

“Instantly then I ran inside.

“I originally went in there for my baseball bat which I couldn’t find.”

Mr Price said he got a 12-gauge single barrel gun out from under his bed and went back outside.

“It’s all that was there man … I wasn’t going to hit him in the head with a golf stick, that’s just impractical,” Mr Price told police in the video played before the court.

“The gun was not cocked ready to shoot until he was in front of me.”

Where the shooting occurred in Porter Street, Parkes. Picture: Google

Mr Price said he planned to use the gun as “an intimidation thing” to try to get Mr Herridge to drop what was revealed to be an axe handle he had a hold of.

“He was holding it in one hand to start with, up behind him ready to swing it,” Mr Price told police.

“Then he put his other hand towards it and started walking towards my mum a bit quicker. Yeah he was walking, but running sort of at the time.

“I knew for a fact he was going straight for my mother, until I told him what I had and I told him to f****** drop it and stop.”

As the situation escalated, Mr Price told police he was thinking “nothing really” and focusing on protecting his family.

“It’s hard to explain man, have you ever dealt with a coming down crackhead who’s skitzing out?

“He was like a f***** demon, there was no stopping him.”

“I gave him his warnings.”

In the seconds before Mr Herridge was shot, Mr Price said he raised the gun and said “f***** stop and drop it right f***** there”.

“He looked at me and looked at my mum and he’s f***** just stopped all interest in my mum … literally sprinted at me.

“I took a little step back, I cocked it, I said f***** stop’, he didn’t stop, he raised the bat up higher and went to swing it.”

When asked why he did not run away or do something else other than shoot Mr Herridge, Mr Price said running “wasn’t an option because my mum was right there and if I had of run away I can guarantee he would have turned around and went straight back for my mum”.

Mr Herridge stumbled after he was shot and died a short time later.

According to a witness who gave evidence before Mr Price, he went into a bathroom to spew after Mr Herridge was shot.

“He tried to run up to the toilet I was spewing in and I said ‘I’m spewing in here you’re going to have to go somewhere else’ and he was just saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’,” the witness said.

“Everyone started bawling their f***** eyes out.”

Mr Price’s mother Tracey Simpson also gave evidence and said she struggled to remember much of what happened because she had epilepsy and blacked out after having two fits.

When Crown prosecutor Liam Shaw read out part of a statement Ms Simpson gave to police shortly after the shooting, in which she said she told Mr Price to “ring the coppers”, Ms Simpson said she could not remember saying that.

“I can’t remember any of it,” she said.

The trial continues.