Craig Smith: Wagga Judge slams Joshua Aaron Byrne and Matthew Thomas Cahill deadly race
Two P-platers who engaged in a street race — at nearly three times the speed limit — that killed a father have been criticised in court for not contemplating their dangerous decision.
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Two TAFE students who engaged in a high-speed street race that killed an innocent man have been slammed by a judge, who said they should not have even contemplated racing in a major suburban thoroughfare in Wagga.
Ashmont's Joshua Aaron Byrne and Batlow's Matthew Thomas Cahill appeared via video link in Wagga District Court for a sentencing hearing on Wednesday in relation to one count each of manslaughter.
Byrne, 22, and Cahill, 20, pleaded guilty in September 2019.
Court documents state that in October 2017, the two men were racing each other at more than 100km/h in a 50km/h zone on Coleman St, Turvey Park, before Byrne's Holden Commodore smashed into a ute that Craig Ian Smith was driving.
The 53-year-old Wagga father was killed instantly.
Byrne and Cahill were taking a break about 9.55am during their automotive course at TAFE on October 23, 2017.
When they pulled up side-by-side at the Edmondson and Coleman streets traffic lights, they began racing through the 50km/h zone after the lights turned green.
When the cars reached Trevor and Coleman streets, just before Kookaburra Preschool, Byrne’s car overtook Cahill’s car at 143km/h before smashing into the driver’s side of Mr Smith’s ute, who was doing a legal U-turn.
The ute came to rest on the wrong side of the road, near a cafe with people sitting outside, while Byrne’s Holden Commodore had its transmission completely detached.
In his preliminary remarks on Wednesday, Judge Gordon Lerve said “when the lights were red” was the appropriate time that Byrne and Cahill should have thought about whether or not to engage in a street race.
“You wouldn’t even contemplate engaging in such conduct in a major thoroughfare in suburban Wagga,” Judge Lerve said.
The court also heard about who should shoulder more of the blame, whether there was planning before the race, whether there was enough time for them to stop the race and the mitigating factors for each offender.
Public defender Michael King, representing Byrne, said his “ultimate submission” was that “Your Honour would not differentiate the moral culpability between the two offenders” because “they were in it together”.
“There was no suggestion that they had communicated with each other and formed a plan that they were going to engage in a street race” Mr King said.
Mr King also argued that Byrne’s ADHD, which he has shown symptoms of but never diagnosed, made him impulsive and led to the offending and that this should reduce his moral culpability to the same level as Cahill’s.
He also said that the race was 25 seconds, which left “little room for consideration (of stopping)”.
As for Byrne’s upbringing, Mr King said it was positive until he went to live with his father in Melbourne, but he “wiped the slate clean” when he moved to Wagga.
The court heard he found employment, started TAFE and started a family.
Barrister Christine Mendes, representing Cahill, said her client had been through “an extraordinary series of events” and argued that he was less morally culpable even if he was equally criminally responsible.
“The offender’s (moral) culpability is equal until Mr Byrne accelerates to a speed that is almost a third in excess of that of Mr Cahill, who was already driving double the speed limit,” Ms Mendes said.
“(Byrne) then conducts a manoeuvre that lands him on the incorrect side of the road then correcting before the fatal.”
Ms Mendes said the evidence did not show who started the race and rejected any suggestions that it was Cahill.
She also said that the short duration of the race meant both offenders “lacked any opportunities to recompose themselves and reconsider their actions”.
“When assessing culpability, Your Honour would have regard to him being an 18 year old (at the time of the offending) with no prior history,” she said.
“The enormity of the experience must be overwhelming. He was likely influenced by a set of circumstances that caused him to act in that manner that he never acted previously.”
Ms Mendes, on behalf of Cahill, also acknowledged the devastation it has caused Mr Smith’s family.
Crown prosecutor Paul Kerr said the offenders had plenty of time “to think to oneself ‘this is stupid’ and to stop doing it”.
“The passage of time is only relevant to one thing: the tragedy that a man’s life would be taken from something that lasted 25 seconds. That’s the relevance of it,” he said.
Mr Kerr also said that the racing was made more serious because it was near schools and cafes and posed danger to other road users and people on the streets.
As for the argument about Byrne’s ADHD, Mr Kerr said “it flies in the face of what Mr King said about Mr Byrne’s attributes after he moved to Wagga”.
In relation to remorse, Mr Kerr said Byrne has not shown remorse while Cahill has.
“Mr Cahill has accepted his role even though he wasn’t personally responsible for the collision,” he said.
In his preliminary remarks, Judge Gordon Lerve also said he could not find that the race was planned.
“I can’t be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that it can’t be anything else other than it being spontaneous,” he said.
The families of the offenders and the victim were in court on Wednesday.
Byrne and Cahill have been remanded in custody and will learn their punishment on May 22.