West Wollongong: Cruz Austin sentenced over apartment stabbing

A young Wollongong man has been jailed for stabbing his girlfriend’s ex-partner, leaving him to die in a stairwell.

The man at the centre of a savage attack on another man has been sentenced for his crime, with the court hearing he stabbed his victim in the chest before leaving him for dead.

West Wollongong man Cruz Austin left the victim, his girlfriend‘s ex-partner, bloodied on the stairs of a Mangerton unit block after detaining him hours earlier.

Cruz Austin, 27. Picture: supplied, Facebook.

The bleeding victim crawled up the stairs calling for help before a neighbour opened his door at about 8.45pm on May 3.

The neighbour called Triple 0, while another neighbour applied pressure to the stab wound.

Covered in blood and clutching his chest, the victim told the neighbours it was “Cruz Angel Austin” who left him fighting for life.

He was taken to Wollongong Hospital with a barely palpable pulse, before undergoing CPR, a blood transfusion and emergency surgery.

Austin, 28 years old, pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm over the May 3, 2020 incident.

The violent assault stemmed from the victim taking $4500, an ounce of cannabis and a car from Austin‘s friend Luke Levvell, who has pleaded guilty to his role in kidnapping the victim.

Cruz Austin has been sentenced to six years and nine months in jail for stabbing another man. Picture: supplied, Facebook.

Judge Andrew Haesler said it was only for the good work of hospital emergency staff that he wasn’t sentencing Austin for a homicide.

“Only prompt intervention by those at the scene, police, ambulance, and staff at Wollongong Hospital stopped this offence from becoming a homicide,” he said.

“Austin may have been just been trying to scare him as he told (a) psychiatrist, but that intent changed when after his blow missed, he stabbed the complainant in the chest. That act was intended to harm, and the harm occasioned was substantial.”

Sentenced to six years and nine months in jail, Austin will serve a non-parole period of three years and nine months, back dated to his arrest, before being eligible for release.

Having spent as many years in jail as he has in the community since becoming a teenager, Austin is no stranger to being on the wrong side of the law.

Born addicted to heroin, Austin’s spent a life addicted to drugs but in a report submitted to the court, said he wanted to get clean and find a secure job upon his release.

He said “if it wasn’t for the drugs, this never would have happened”.