Adam Winmar, 30, sentenced over firearm and reckless conduct charge
The furious family of a mum killed by a freak discharge of an illegal homemade gun have slammed the owner’s “lenient” sentence which they say sends a “dangerous message”.
This story contains the image of an Indigenous Australian who has died.
The devastated family of a mother killed by an illegal homemade gun say the weapon owner’s soft prison sentence sends a “dangerous message” that the victim’s life was “worthless”.
It comes as Shepparton man Adam Winmar — who was previously banned from possessing firearms — was sentenced to three months behind bars after a homemade pipe gun he hid inside a couch freakishly discharged and killed his pregnant partner Kiara Ferguson.
Winmar was sentenced on charges of being a prohibited person possessing a firearm and reckless conduct that placed people at risk of death.
He was not sentenced for Ms Ferguson’s death as a previous manslaughter charge was dropped.
Winmar had the gun stored in a couch at his home where he and Ms Ferguson — who was pregnant at the time — lived with their two children.
His four-year-old daughter discovered the gun which Ms Ferguson immediately confiscated and approached Winmar who was in the bathroom, asking him “what did I tell you about this?” while holding the firearm.
The court heard she then “threw, lobbed or dropped” the gun in his direction, with the weapon freakishly discharging and fatally striking Ms Ferguson under her left eye.
At a sentence indication last month Ms Ferguson’s family walked out of the court room in “protest” upon hearing Winmar would likely spend only a handful of months behind bars.
Justice Michael Croucher handed down a three month sentence and 12 month community corrections order on Friday.
In a statement on behalf of the family, Ms Ferguson’s sister Julie said the sentence failed to “honour the life that was taken and hold the offender fully accountable”.
“The punishment handed down by Justice Croucher does not reflect the seriousness of the crime or the magnitude of the life that was taken,” she said.
“It was a violent act that was preventable and final, yet the sentence fails to acknowledge the full gravity of what was done to her, her daughters, to us and our community.
“Kiara deserved justice, she deserved a response from the court that recognised the irreversibale impact of this violent choice.”
In an unrelated incident Winmar pleaded guilty at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court in March to strangling another woman to the point of unconsciousness after she refused to participate in a threesome.
On Friday the court heard he had also failed to complete several CCOs in the past decade and had previously been convicted on a possessing weapons charge.
Julie said the sentence did not give the family any justice.
“Kiara’s daughters will live with this tragedy for the rest of their lives,” she said.
“We will never see her smile again, hear her voice or experience the joy she brought to those around her. The sentence imposed does not come close to the depth of that loss, true justice should honour the life that was taken and hold the offender fully accountable.
“This sentence does neither.”
At the time Winmar told police the gun did not work when fired — which stacked up with a police test which found it could not be fired normally but would discharge if it landed at a particular point or if the bolt was hit with a hammer.
On Friday Justice Croucher said Winmar’s poor attempt to hide the gun from his young family inside a couch was a “profoundly stupid thing to do”.
“Adam Winmar did something that’ll haunt him for the rest of his days,” Mr Croucher said.
“Any loaded gun is to be treated as potentially dangerous and as if fate tried to teach Mr Winmar this lesson his four-year-old daughter found the gun.”
Mr Croucher said it was an “uncomfortable truth” that Ms Ferguson’s “throwing or lobbying” of the weapon was the “immediate cause” of the “unforeseeable” deadly outcome.
It was why His Honour said he could not sentence Winmar for her death.
The court heard Winmar made the pipegun — despite being a prohibited person — as a result of his paranoia that there were people out to get him.
At the time of the incident he was also using ice and consumed about 10 standard drinks a day.
