Melbourne man Jack Aquino pleads guilty to intentionally cause injury, attempted armed robbery
A Melbourne man who left his dad in a “puddle of blood” and threatened to run over a family for $50 has learnt his fate.
South East
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A thug who bashed his father senseless, stabbed a bystander and threatened to run over a family during a Melbourne crime spree has avoided a further stint in adult custody.
Jack Aquino, 20, was ordered to serve 42 months in youth justice detention after pleading guilty to attempted armed robbery and intentionally causing injury.
Aquino, who was sentenced in the County Court on Friday, drank with his dad at Village Belle Hotel St Kilda before bashing him down the street just after 2am on January 26 this year.
A witness who saw Aquino kicking his dad told the thug to stop.
“That’s my father,” Aquino yelled back.
Another witness said they saw Aquino “stomp on his dad’s head two to three times”.
A delivery driver who witnessed the assault believed Aquino’s dad was on the ground unconscious while having his head kicked in.
Police photographed the dad’s injuries after he was taken in hospital.
Judge Marcus Dempsey asked the defence if Aquino had seen the photographs.
“They’re pretty bad …,” Judge Dempsey said.
“(Aquino) put his father in hospital with his bare hands, that’s not entirely true, he also used his feet to stomp on him leaving a puddle of blood on the floor …
“I can’t see anything … which would justify (Aquino) punching his father senseless and stomping on his head until he’s lying in hospital in the way depicted by those photographs with his eyes swollen shut and covered in blood …”
Aquino, who held a learner’s permit, was on drugs when he performed burnouts in Cranbourne West early on February 10 this year.
Aquino, whose road ruckus woke many nearby residents, collided with a Ford Falcon ute parked on a nature strip.
Aquino drove off a short distance then exited the car and walked from the scene.
A witness and a victim followed Aquino in their car before the victim hopped out of the car and tailed Aquino on foot.
The victim attempted to grab Aquino but he yelled back: “I’m not going prison”.
Aquino then whipped out a black combat knife and stabbed the victim twice, in the torso and once in the shoulder blade just below his neck.
The victim, who was bleeding heavily, was rushed to The Alfred for “immediate” surgery.
Aquino, who was caught with bumbag containing meth and Xanax, was detained until police arrived.
Judge Dempsey said the victim experienced “serious anxiety” and was now “detached from his family”.
“Does (Aquino) understand the price (the victim) paid,” Judge Dempsey said.
Aquino was on bail at the time for an attempted armed robbery committed in Langwarrin on September 14, 2020.
Aquino drove a car in the path of two parents and their three-month-old baby.
Aquino demanded they hand over cash then revved the engine and spun the wheels on a nature strip.
“I will run you over,” he said.
“Give me $50.”
Aquino fled the scene after passers-by told him to leave his targets alone.
Aquino, armed with a hammer, later threatened another man.
“Last time you refused to give me your phone,” Aquino said.
“Now I’m going to take it from you.”
Aquino was chased from the scene and later arrested by police.
Judge Dempsey indicated, at an earlier hearing, that he was likely to hand Aquino a community correction order for the attempted armed robbery.
However, all that changed after Judge Dempsey learned the full extent of the stabbing and dad bashing offending.
Aquino was sentenced at the Magistrates’ Court earlier this year for that offending but elected to appeal the sentence at the County Court.
Judge Dempsey said he was “labouring under a serious misapprehension” that the magistrate’s matters were “relatively minor”.
“I struggled to comprehend why Mr Aquino was denied bail on those matters …,” Judge Dempsey said.
“Then I received the summaries for those matters which, in my view, are every bit as serious, if not more serious, than the matters that are before me on indictment.
“Had I been the magistrate (Aquino) would’ve been lucky to have been granted summary jurisdiction (for) the stabbing of that innocent man not doing anything other than trying to apprehend (Aquino) who was running amok.”
Judge Dempsey then lashed Aquino for mouthing off after giving the thug a generous opportunity of possibly serving youth detention rather than jail time in an adult prison.
Aquino, who appeared via videolink from Ravenhall, became shirty after Judge Dempsey last month said sentencing and the appeal decision couldn’t be delivered until late November.
“(Aquino) said something which looks like it rhymes with ‘f**king hell’,” Judge Dempsey said.
“Sit up straight, don’t slouch and uncross your arms … why would he say something like that?”
Judge Dempsey also said he would require “NASA” to figure out Aquino’s pre-sentence detention days.
Aquino, who had served 735 days of pre-sentence detention, was also convicted and fined.
