Jaxen Gillespie’s alleged murderer released on bail after shocking details about stabbing emerge
A teen charged over a stabbing murder at Wangaratta has been released on bail, despite bragging to his girlfriend: “I like jail”.
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A teenager charged over a stabbing murder in a Wangaratta park has been released from jail, despite bragging to his girlfriend: “I like jail”.
Zachary Johnson, 18, was released on strict bail earlier this month ahead of his expected 2023 trial.
He is charged with the August murder of 19-year-old Jaxen Henderson Gillespie.
Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry said he did “not regard it as certain by any means” that a jury would find Johnson guilty of murder.
The court last month heard Johnson was recorded telling his girlfriend, in a phone call from Barwon prison, that the high unit he was on remand at was “f*cking putrid“.
“I’m gonna try and change jails ... this one is f*cking putrid. I mean, I like it, I like jail... but not this one,” he said.
Prosecutors are expected to allege Johnson stabbed Mr Gillespie in the neck at Scout Park in Wangaratta on the evening of August 21.
A panicked bystander who rang triple-0 said to the operator “he stabbed him in the f*cking throat out of nowhere”.
Mr Gillespie died an hour later, after an ambulance crew was unable to revive him.
The court heard Johnson only knew Mr Gillespie through another man, Brody Rouse, and that there had been previous “animosity” between Johnson and Mr Rouse.
Prosecutors will allege Johnson sent two mates a picture of a blunt knife and asked for help to sharpen it, before later meeting Mr Rouse.
Johnson rang his girlfriend in the minutes after Mr Gillespie collapsed and is alleged to have said Mr Gillespie punched him to the back of the head, before both Mr Gillespie and Mr Rouse jumped on him and began punching him more.
Johnson is expected to argue he “accidentally” stabbed Mr Gillespie with a ”butter knife” while acting in self-defence.
Johnson turned himself in to the Wangaratta police station after the stabbing with his mum dropping him off with a plastic bag of the bloodied clothes he came home in.
Dates for Johnson‘s trial are yet to be fixed.
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