John Warburton stabbing: Sharri Williams, Eddie Castro, Julian Howard, Peter Stoeski face court

A group of men who stabbed a man to death in a laneway near his house targeted the wrong man and stood around the victim yelling as he bled to death, a court has heard.

A group of men who have admitted to stabbing a man to death in a laneway near his southwest Sydney home were out to get revenge but found the wrong man, a court has heard.

John Warburton’s body was found by police in a dimly-lit laneway in Cartwright on September 25, 2019, with the 45-year-old leaving a trail of blood as he attempted to crawl back to a nearby home after he was stabbed in the leg.

Sharri Lee Williams, Eddie Castro, Julian Howard and Peter Stoeski faced Campbelltown District Court for sentence hearing after pleading guilty to their involvement in the death.

The three men have pleaded guilty to manslaughter while Williams, a mother-of-two confessed to one charge of being an accessory after the fact to manslaughter in the local court. She was originally charged with murder, but it was withdrawn and dismissed.

Eddie Castro and Sharri Williams, former partners who have pleaded guilty to their involvement in the fatal stabbing of John Warburton.

The court heard Castro, the father of Williams’s two children, is accused of wielding the machete that stabbed and killed Mr Warburton in the brutal attack.

Meanwhile, Williams assisted her former partner after the commission of the murder and colluded with him in creating a version of events they would tell police and investigators.

She is also accused of constructing alibis with her grandmother around the events.

All four appeared at Campbelltown District Court on Monday and Tuesday for sentence hearings, where Crown prosecutor Rossi Kotsis told the court Mr Warburton was innocent.

“They took revenge on the wrong bloke ... this enterprise was to extract revenge on another man who the deceased obviously had nothing to do with,” Mr Kotsis said.

“The deceased did nothing to provoke or cause the conduct against him.”

Police made the grim discovery of John Warburton’s body in an alleyway in Cartwright. Picture: Bill Hearne

Criminal defence barrister Angus Webb said there had been a “range of difficulties” in Howard’s life leading up to the attack.

Mr Webb said Howard and the co-accused were seeking revenge after a “substantial number of windows” were broken but concedes it was “probably a matter for police”.

“Instead of following out the proper process, there was this attitude that ‘we can sort this out’,” Mr Webb said.

“What was intended at the start was to carry out some sort of row in substitute of the authority.”

Judge Andrew Colefax told the court Stoeski drove himself, Howard and Castro to the laneway and had a metal pole in his possession.

“Your client drove these people there and he was armed with a metal pole ... they gathered around the deceased shouting at him,” his honour said.

Williams gave evidence on Tuesday where she told the court she had been in a relationship with Castro for eight years and felt “disgusted” with herself.

Sharri-Lee Williams pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact of murder. Picture: Facebook

“I’m really sorry to the family, if I could take back my actions I would and it follows me every day, I think about it every day,” she said.

“I would like to apologise to the family of Mr Warburton. I can’t express how sorry I am.”

Castro’s criminal defence lawyer Peter Lange on Monday told the court his client has PTSD and a history of drug use, which led to him having a “fear of being robbed” and arming himself.

However, Crown prosecutor Rossi Kotsis said “why Mr Castro armed himself with a machete or long knife is unclear”.

“Whether or not he is truly remorseful, it is clear from the agreed facts nothing in Mr Warburton’s conduct was provocative or could have caused any of the offenders to respond the way they did,” Mr Kotsis said.

“He (Castro) is the offender who caused the fatal blow.”

Prior to the sentence hearings on Monday, victim impact statements from Mr Warburton’s mother and sister were read to the court, where his mother said the family first saw the news of his death on social media and it felt like someone “ripped out her heart”.

The three men and woman were arrested after a four-week long investigation. Picture: Bill Hearne

“When my daughter told me someone had been stabbed in Cartwright I had a terrible feeling it was Johnny,” his mother said.

“I went to ring him then I saw it on TV, then police knocked on the door … I was paralysed. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, it felt like someone ripped my heart out.”

Mrs Warburton told the court she was in “disbelief” when she found out her “darling boy Johnny” had been taken from her. She said he was a “kind, gentle” person.

His sister, Kelly-Anne, told the court she first saw the news a man had died on social media while she was dropping her son to school.

Kelly-Anne said she went to the place her brother died to lay some flowers, after being told by police all evidence from the scene had been hosed away.

“We came across bloodied footprints and it was very confronting … it clicked that it was my brother’s blood and they were the last steps of his life,” she said.

“It was devastating to think about what he had experienced and how I would never see him again, we held a silly bunch of flowers and cried.”

All four will be sentenced in February 2022.