Tomahawk murderer who buried mate in shallow grave appeals murder conviction

A man found guilty of killing his friend with a tomahawk and burying the body in a shallow grave says the jury’s murder verdict is ‘unreasonable’.

A drug dealer found guilty of murdering a Brisbane man with a tomahawk and burying his body in a shallow grave says the jury’s verdict was unreasonable and a miscarriage of justice occurred in his trial.

Roberto Vincenzo Boscaino was last year jailed for life for the murder of Samuel Thompson in 2017 over a drug deal gone wrong.

Mr Thompson attended Boscaino’s Bald Hills house to secure cannabis on March 7 that year but was not seen alive again.

Boscaino and his co-accused, former anti-Islamic State fighter Ashley Mitchell Scott Dyball, were both at the home at the time, but both denied killing Mr Thompson.

Samuel Thompson’s body was found in a shallow grave in Beerburrum State Forest next to a tomahawk in 2017.

The court was told Mr Thompson was attacked at the home, hit with a tomahawk and stuffed into a large toolbox.

Medical evidence revealed he had been strangled or hit with such force in the throat that his larynx and hyoid bone had been fractured.

The pair drove the box to the Beerburrum State Forest north of Brisbane where it was buried with the tomahawk.

A jury found Boscaino guilty of Mr Thompson’s murder.

He appealed his conviction, arguing the verdict was unreasonable and there was a miscarriage of justice because incorrect directions were given to the jury of his post-offence conduct and the evidence from former prisoner Michael James Earwaker.

Mr Earwaker gave evidence of a jailhouse confession from Boscaino of how he attacked Mr Thompson.

Boscaino’s legal team claimed the sentencing judge did not give proper directions to the jury about the lies Boscaino told to police of his post-offence conduct.

Samuel Thompson’s sister Courtney and parents Bruce and Debbie talk to the media outside the Supreme Court in Brisbane after the sentencing of co-accused Ashley Dyball, who was acquitted of murdering Mr Thompson but found guilty of interfering with his corpse. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

They claimed the sentencing justice failed to direct the jury that they had to be satisfied Mr Earwaker’s statements were true.

The court was told Boscaino had used a sander to remove blood stains from the floor of his garage, but he told police he had used it to get rid of oil stains.

He also lied about the last time he had seen Mr Thompson and seeing him with Dyball.

On Tuesday, Queensland’s Court of Appeal dismissed Boscaino’s application, saying the sentencing justice had correctly told the jury on how to consider his post-offence conduct.

The court ruled Mr Earwaker’s evidence was enough to infer the murder was a “necessary concomitant” and was supportive of the crown case.

“The circumstantial case, which proved the lengths to which the appellant had gone to hide the murder, coupled with his evident attitude in the days following, supported by the evidence of admissions, raised a very strong crown case,” the court ruled.

Dyball, a former anti-Islamic State fighter who had travelled to Syria to fight alongside Kurdish forces, was found guilty of interfering with Mr Thompson’s corpse by helping bury it in the Beerburrum State Forest.

Earlier this year, Dyball was found not guilty of Mr Thompson’s murder but guilty of interfering with his corpse.

He was jailed for three years but released immediately with time already served.

Mr Thompson’s father, Bruce, lashed the 28-year-old at his sentencing for trying to tear his family apart.

“Not even animals treat their dead that way,” he said.