Jessica Clare Wright pleads guilty to accessory after the fact to manslaughter of Wes Prentice at Cooks Hill

A woman has admitted helping her killer boyfriend as he remained at large for nine days after shooting dead another man during an argument over a debt.

The apartment block in Darby Street, Newcastle, where Wes Prentice was shot dead in 2021. Picture by Peter Lorimer

A woman has admitted helping her killer boyfriend while he was on the run from police after the career criminal shot a man dead during an altercation inside an inner-Newcastle unit block.

Jessica Clare Wright, now aged 38, pleaded guilty in Newcastle District Court on Thursday to being an accessory after the fact to the manslaughter of Wes Prentice in Cooks Hill in 2021.

It came nearly three years after she fled the Housing NSW unit with her boyfriend, Michael Rae, after Rae shot Mr Prentice dead during an argument which turned physical.

The pair were found nine days later at Bonny Hills, near Port Macquarie.

Rae had initially been charged with murder but would later plead guilty to the manslaughter of the 40-year-old after prosecutors withdrew the murder charge.

Jessica Clare Wright is arrested by Strike Force Hibbard detectives in relation to the shooting death of Wes Prentice

He was sentenced to a maximum of nine years in jail, with a non-parole period of five-and-a-half years.

Rae had pulled a gun during a heated argument with Mr Prentice over an unpaid debt inside the Darby St unit before it turned physical and the gun went off.

Paramedics leave the unit block after being unable to save Wes Prentice. Picture by Peter Lorimer

The bullet pierced Mr Prentice’s chest and he died at the scene.

The couple fled the scene before police arrived and remained on the run from authorities until Rae was dramatically near a mid-north coast children’s playground.

Wright was arrested five months later and was initially charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

That charge was officially withdrawn by prosecutors on Thursday to marry up with Rae’s manslaughter conviction after they had previously dropped the murder charge against him.

Instead, she pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to manslaughter during a brief appearance in Newcastle District Court.

She remains on bail and will be sentenced in October.