Attempted murderer warned ‘you’ll have a body on your hands’ before mowing down enemy
A man has been jailed for at least a decade for running down a man he believed had caused his friend to take his own life.
Police & Courts
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An attempted murderer who ran over a man he believed caused his mate to suicide went to the cops days earlier warning, “if you don’t get him first you’ll have a body on your hands”.
Scott Thomas, 36, has been jailed for at least a decade after he mowed down his nemesis Jason Yanner when he coincidentally drove along the same Stawell street the victim was walking to get ingredients from the shops for dinner, in March 2023.
The Supreme Court on Thursday heard that months earlier, the pair got in a punch-on at the home of their mutual friend who had taken his life that day as they blamed one another for his death.
The animosity between them led Thomas to Stawell police station on March 5, where he refused to give officers his name but reported Mr Yanner, 53, had threatened to kill him.
“If you don’t get him first you’ll have a body on your hands,” Thomas yelled outside the station.
Ten days later, on March 15, Mr Yanner’s crumpled body lay on the nature strip of a Stawell street after Thomas, who had driven past, suddenly ripped a U-turn and sped almost 80m to mow him down.
Mr Yanner “flew into the air” then fell to the ground in a “perilous state” while Thomas lost control of his car, crashing into Jye Salter-Fear, 31, who was also walking to the shops, while his girlfriend Janine Kennedy watched on in terror as she narrowly avoided being hit.
The court heard Thomas, who “initially did not appear to be perturbed” by what he had done, got out of his smashed-up car and approached a crumpled and mortally wounded Mr Yanner to check he was dead, and went to kick him.
But he was pushed away by a neighbour who had seen the horror unfold.
Thomas later told police of his regret that he hadn’t killed Mr Yanner, admitting he intended to run him over and had “snapped, lost it and saw pure red”.
Both Mr Yanner and Mr Salter-Fear had to be airlifted to hospital for lifesaving treatment, suffering injuries that were “potentially catastrophic”.
“Your description of what you had done was chilling,” Justice James Elliott said in sentencing Thomas to a maximum 16 years jail on Thursday.
His Honour described how Thomas had demonstrated to officers how he mowed his victim down, and that “when you hit him you wanted him dead”, getting out of his smashed up car to “make sure” he’d done the job.
“The cold and calculated manner in which you sought to kill Mr Yanner is concerning,” Justice Elliott said, noting that 18 months later, he’d still shown no remorse.
The court heard he was however “sorry about what happened to Mr Salter-Fear”.
Later, police found Thomas had drugs in his blood and weed in his car.
Supported in court on Thursday by his mother and girlfriend, a rat-tailed Thomas was handed a 16 year jail term with a non parole period of 10 years for charges of attempted murder and negligently causing serious injury.
He’ll be eligible for parole in March 2033.
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