Joanne DeBono allegedly tried to murder her husband with poisoned meatballs
JOANNE poisoned her husband’s meatball dinner and watched him eat the entire meal, before trying to inject him with weedkiller, a court has heard.
A WOMAN accused of poisoning her husband’s meatballs before trying to inject him with weedkiller and brake fluid will front a hearing with her co-accused daughter.
Joanne DeBono, 54, is charged with attempting to murder Stephen DeBono in mid-March. DeBono’s husband was allegedly abusive and she was accused of lacing his meatball dinner with 75 crushed temazepam pills before injecting him with about two millilitres of a chemical cocktail.
Her daughter, 19-year-old Shannon DeBono, is also charged in relation to the matter with the pair to face a pre-trial hearing next year, Melbourne Magistrates’ Court was told on Thursday.
DeBono allegedly crushed up the temazepam pills she had purchased from three separate pharmacies, mixed them with her husband’s meatball dinner and watched him eat the entire meal, the court heard during her bail application in April.
Mr DeBono, who was feeling groggy, then went to lie down, Detective Acting Sergeant James Marsden told DeBono’s bail application.
About 10pm, DeBono went to the garage where she mixed brake fluid, metal lubricant and weed killer and filled one of Mr DeBono’s hyperaemic needles, Sergeant Marsden said.
She went into the bedroom where she injected her husband with two millilitres of the cocktail before he woke up and asked what she was doing.
Fearing for her safety, DeBono fled the house.
DeBono and her daughter went to the Fawkner police station where DeBono confessed to injecting her husband with the cocktail, Sergeant Marsden said.
She said her husband had physically and emotionally abused her for 25 years.
Police found Mr DeBono still in bed and he was rushed to hospital.
A police search of the home found empty temazepam packets, a syringe containing liquid, a mixing bowl, bottles of brake fluid, weed killer and the heavyweight lubricant penetrene.
Police also found a mobile phone belonging to the couple’s daughter which contained numerous voice recordings of Mr DeBono making threats to DeBono, according to court documents.
A doctor at the Royal Melbourne Hospital told police Mr DeBono had not sustained significant injuries but was very angry at his wife.
Mr DeBono allegedly told doctors and nurses at the hospital on March 13 that when he was released he would kill “everyone who did this to him”.
DeBono was granted bail in April.
Debono, of Gowanbrae in Melbourne’s northwest, and her 19-year-old daughter are both charged with attempted murder and intentionally causing injury over the alleged incident on March 12.
The duo fronted court briefly on Thursday and the matter was listed for a committal hearing for a magistrate to decide if there’s enough evidence for a trial.
Nine witnesses will testify at the three-day hearing scheduled for April 2017.
Joanne DeBono is due back in court in a month because her Legal Aid funding hasn’t been approved, the court was told on Thursday.