Benjamin Stiler faces Supreme Court for killing Albury father-of-four

The family of a father of four killed outside a Victorian house party have made statements to the Supreme Court after a Wodonga man was found guilty of murder.

Duwayne Johnson, 26, of Albury, was shot at Wodonga in January 2022.

A Wodonga man who shot and killed a father-of-four at a house party has shown a “complete lack of genuine remorse”, a court has heard.

Benjamin Stiler, 27, was charged with murdering 26-year-old Albury man Duwayne Johnson on January 16, 2022 and was later found guilty by a jury.

The Supreme Court heard on Monday that Stiler shot Mr Johnson in the chest with a sawn-off shotgun from “metres away” outside a Wodonga house party, where Stiler believed “someone had beef with him”.

He then drove over Mr Johnson and left the scene.

Police found Mr Johnson fatally wounded on Woodland St about 3am, with Stiler arrested in Melbourne five days later.

Through a victim impact statement read to the court on her behalf, Mr Johnson’s mother Trish Johnson said her son was a “well-mannered boy with a smile that would brighten the room up”.

She said she suffered daily without him.

Benjamin Stiler

“No sentence will bring my son back, but I hope justice is served today,” Ms Johnson said,

Mr Johnson’s sister Rebecca Johnson said her brother had been influential in helping raise her children.

“Some days I feel angry, some days feel lost, most days I just feel sadness,” she said, and described often being “overwhelmed with negative emotions and recurring thoughts about what happened to Duwayne”.

The court heard there was no evidence Stiler brought the shotgun to the party specifically to kill Mr Johnson.

Justice James Tinney called the crime the “shooting of a man who objectively presented no threat”, despite Mr Johnson, who was unarmed, approaching Stiler.

“He shot a complete stranger for no reason.”

Crown Prosecutor Patrick Bourke SC said Stiler’s offending was a “serious example of murder with a serious weapon.”

“He shot the first person he saw in the street within seconds,” Mr Bourke said.

“The casualness with which he discharged his gun at the person standing in front of him goes to a cavalier attitude to the undertaking of that very serious act.”

“His lack of acknowledgment of the essence of the crime demonstrates a complete lack of genuine remorse.”

The matter was adjourned for sentence on a date to be fixed.

Stiler has spent 829 days in custody.