‘I’ll kill you now’: party boy vigilante Joshua Dodemaide avoids jail time for violent kidnapping
A drugged-up party boy who dragged a terrified man from his ute, threatened “I’ll kill you now” then sped away with him — leaving him to jump from the moving vehicle — in a mistaken identity vigilante attack over burnouts has avoided jail.
South East
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A vigilante party boy who assaulted and threatened to kill a man during a terrifying kidnapping after wrongly believing he did burnouts outside his Carrum Downs home has avoided a jail sentence.
Joshua Dodemaide, 20, was sentenced in the County Court on August 14 after pleading guilty to several charges including kidnapping and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
Dodemaide and former housemate Evan Fox armed themselves with weapons after being woken by a hoon doing burnouts just after 3am on June 3 last year.
The “substance-impaired” duo drove around in Dodemaide’s Toyota Hilux to find the culprit.
The pair scoured the roads and came across Jarrad Muscat, who was driving nearby.
Dodemaide and Fox believed Mr Muscat was responsible, so stopped him in the middle of the road.
Mr Muscat reversed and drove away after the drugged-up duo attacked his ute.
Dodemaide, who instigated the attack, drove after Mr Muscat and rammed his ute.
Dodemaide and Fox dragged Mr Muscat out of his ute, propped him up and kicked and punched him.
A “mystified” Mr Muscat pleaded with his attackers to let him go.
“What have I done?” Mr Muscat asked.
“I don’t even know you.”
Dodemaide threatened Mr Muscat: “Don’t f*** with me I’ll kill you now, I’ve got the footage. You know what you f****n did.”
But Mr Muscat pleaded: “Are you sure you have the right guy?”
Dodemaide threw Mr Muscat in the back of his Hilux as he and Fox discussed how to hide their victim’s ute.
Fox attempted to drive the damaged ute away but couldn’t start it.
In the meantime, Dodemaide sped off with Mr Muscat in the back seat.
Desperate and terrified, Mr Muscat opened the door and threw himself onto the road and was able to escape and raise the alarm to police.
Dodemaide was arrested after Fox helped police to identify him.
Judge Felicity Hampel said vigilante attacks “were not to be tolerated”.
She said Dodemaide played the “greater role” and was the “instigator”.
“It made no difference if Mr Muscat had done the burnouts or not,” she said.
“This was a senseless attack and it must have been terrifying for Mr Muscat.
“(It) demonstrates one of the vices of vigilante behaviour that the wrong person, an entirely innocent person, can be attacked, assaulted and terrorised for no good reason.
“(Mr Muscat) was subjected to a terrifying and a vicious attack which sprang from an irrational mistaken belief that he had done something that you didn’t like.
“And what had he done, nothing worse than a burnout in front of your house.”
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Judge Hampel said Dodemaide had a serious history of substance abuse which included the party drug GHB.
Dodemaide was convicted and placed on a three year community corrections order.
Fox, 21, was last month sentenced to 86 days — time already served.
He will be deported to Ireland.