Woman sentenced for arson of car allegedly used in Anuisha Bone murder: Court
Within weeks of returning to the drug world, a hallucinogen-using hospitality worker was torching an Avis rental car which police allege had just been used by others in a high-profile hit.
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Four weeks after relapsing and reconnecting with the drug world a troubled hospitality worker torched a hire car which police allege had been used by two men in a shooting murder.
Holley Cheval Turner handed herself into police who did not have any suspects at the time for the arson case, Rockhampton District Court heard on March 11.
The court heard the alleged murderers’ names were James George De Marco and Arlie Lee Fowler – the men charged over the shooting death of Anuisha Bone whose body was found on the roadside in November 17, 2023.
Judge Jeff Clarke said the vehicle “may have been” involved in “a murder by shooting by some people who are alleged to have committed that offence on the Rockhampton Yeppoon Road three days earlier”.
Crown prosecutor Cameron Keast said the torched vehicle, a 2021 Toyota Kluger worth about $35,000 and rented from Avis in another woman’s name, had been allegedly used by two men while committing the alleged murder.
He said the vehicle was set on fire at Bouldercombe on November 20, 2023, and was found on November 23, 2023.
Mr Keast said Turner, 31, handed herself into police on March 28, 2024, and there were no suspects for the car arson at that time.
Judge Clarke said Turner had been asked on January 10 to provide a statement to police, but she declined that time.
Mr De Marco and Mr Fowler were charged with murder on January 17, 2024.
Neither have entered pleas in relation to their charge.
Turner was charged with arson of a vehicle and has no other charges outstanding before Queensland courts.
She was not charged in relation to Mr Bone’s death.
Mr Keast said the Crown had not accepted Turner’s motivation (which was not divulged in open court) for setting the car on fire.
Judge Clarke described her explanation for the arson as “fanciful”.
The court heard no one else has been charged with the arson of the vehicle.
Defence barrister Sheridan Shaw said her client had a traumatic childhood with her mother leaving her and her brother in the care of her father when she was 11.
She said Turner had turned to drugs after a significant relationship broke down, and she struggled with her mental health.
Ms Shaw said her client, who works in the hospitality industry, had been introduced to drugs by a new partner in 2021.
She said Turner had managed a few months of sobriety before meeting Mr Fowler four weeks before the alleged murder, and that was when she returned to using methamphetamines and also started using hallucinogens.
Ms Shaw said her client “expressed to police that” her motivation for “coming forward” was to help the family of the deceased “get some justice” and “provide a broader picture of the offending against this fellow (Mr Fowler) and Mr De Marco”.
She said Turner’s maternal grandmother was a long-term missing person, and the suspicion of her grandmother’s alleged death fell on Turner’s father.
“Those allegations were made by her (Turner’s) mother, Ms Shaw said.
“There was a Coroner’s finding exonerating her father, but that rift in the family has been quite deep and caused her some mental health struggles.”
Mr Keast said Turner had no criminal record.
She pleaded guilty to one count of arson and was sentenced to a two-year prison term, wholly suspended and operational for two years.
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