A Toowoomba man accused of mowing down his friend in an act of revenge has been found guilty.

A Toowoomba man accused of mowing down his friend in an act of revenge has been found guilty of murder

Rockville man Jonathan Wright (pictured), has been found guilty of murdering Brisbane man Paul Sia.

A Toowoomba man accused of murdering a man who he claimed stole $40,000 off him has been found guilty.

Jonathan Wright pleaded not guilty to murder at the opening of the trial following a fatal hit-and-run in November 2022 which claimed the life of Brisbane man Paul Sia.

Wright broke down in tears when the guilty verdict was read on Friday morning.

When asked if he had anything to say, he said “I just want to say sorry to (Mr Sia’s family), I didn’t mean to kill your son. I’m sorry.”

Earlier in the week the Toowoomba court heard Wright followed Mr Sia and his associate, Nathan Vaevae, in his Holden Rodeo utility before ramming into the back of Mr Sia’s Nissan Tiida at the entrance to Withcott on Toowoomba Connection Road.

Wright gave evidence that after ramming the car off the road he turned on it a second time, forcing it towards a nearby fence before performing a U-turn and running over Mr Sia who had since exited the vehicle and was collecting items from the side of the road.

The court was told about $16,000 was found in Mr Sia’s vehicle and around the collision site while Mr Wright testified to taking a further approximate $17,000 from the scene.

Mr Wright claimed he had met with Mr Sia to purchase a quantity of drugs for $40,000 in order to help pay for his girlfriend’s new car; the money, he maintained, was not his own.

Following the fatal event, which was captured on dashcam footage, Mr Wright said he began collecting cash from around Mr Sia and inside the Nissan Tiida before heading back to Toowoomba.

He claimed to have not assisted Mr Sia in the aftermath, despite testifying he initially believed him dead, as he thought the man would assault him.

The Holden Rodeo was driven away later that evening by two unidentified people and never found again.

A forensic pathologist told the court Mr Sia suffered multiple fractures to the jaw, skull and forearm and severe internal bleeding which led his brain to protrude from his skull.

He died in hospital two weeks following the incident from extensive brain and head trauma.

In his closing statements to the court, defence barrister Douglas Wilson warned the jury not to rely solely on the video evidence of the incident.

“It would be dangerous to just rely upon that,” he said.

“It’s taken from some distant back, it’s on an angle, and you can’t see exactly where the vehicles are.

“While we have a number of witnesses who saw what happened, this trial turns not on what they saw, so much, but the intention of Mr Wright at the time.

“The collision of Mr Sia while he was out of the car was not an intentional act.

“You can contrast that with the other two collisions with the vehicle, you might find they were intentional acts.”

Mr Wilson said Mr Wright had been “forthright and frank” in his testimony and had been honest about twice ramming Mr Sia’s vehicle in an attempt to trap him.

“He answered all the questions in that witness box, he answered questions that did not paint him in a favourable light,” Mr Wilson said.

“(He was describing) absolutely terrible behaviour but trying to explain he didn’t intend to kill or cause grievous bodily harm.”

Crown prosecutor Ben Jackson argued in his closing statement Mr Wright had ample time to consider the consequences of his actions before the fatal strike, constituting murderous intent.

“This was conduct that was ruthless, it was brutal and it was callous,” he said.

“Mr Wright (said he) voluntarily got into the back seat of that car holding a box with $40,000 in it, he says he was punched once and that’s all it took for him to relinquish control of that amount of money, which wasn’t even his own.

“You might think that triggered in Mr Wright an enormous amount of rage, he wanted to get revenge.

“This was not a case where Mr Wright was provoked to an extent where he didn’t know what he was doing and was overcome by rage, this is a much more cold calculating form of anger to exact punishment and revenge on Mr Sia.”

Originally published as A Toowoomba man accused of mowing down his friend in an act of revenge has been found guilty.