Michael ‘Willy’ Wilson killed with garden shears by neighbour Troy Anthony Taylor after wives seen ‘mouthing off’
Two couples lived side-by-side for 18 years — before a dispute led one husband to stab the other with a “grim reaper-type” weapon.
A dispute between neighbours on the Victorian Mornington Peninsula ended in a man being killed with half a pair of garden shears.
The Supreme Court of Victoria this week heard differing accounts of what led to Troy Anthony Taylor stabbing his neighbour of 18 years, Michael ‘Willy’ Wilson in the town of Hastings.
The weapon had never been found but it was a “grim reaper-type” blade, Detective Senior Constable Kirsty Hellebrand told the court.
Taylor last week pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the fatal stabbing in Salmon Street between 6pm and 7.45pm on May 5, 2019.
A witness, Joel Grass, told the court he was sitting in his Audi in the driveway when the fight occurred.
He told the court Taylor’s wife Tracey Taylor and Mr Wilson’s wife Kim Scott were “mouthing off” from their respective yards.
He said they were “calling each other names” and yelling at each other for about 10 minutes.
At the height of the argument Ms Taylor walked onto the neighbouring front yard, he said.
He said Mr Wilson, the eventual victim, appeared and told her three times to get off his property.
That’s when he saw Ms Taylor’s husband walk past him in the car with a weapon he thought was a stick.
Taylor used the weapon on Mr Wilson in a “baseball swing” type motion, Mr Grass told the court.
Mr Grass leapt out of the car to intervene: “I grabbed (Taylor) from behind and I basically threw him at the front of my car and pinned him on the ground.”
“There was just screaming everywhere.”
He said the victim did not have a weapon.
In emotional evidence on Tuesday the victim’s widow, Ms Scott, told her court the neighbouring woman accused her of cheating on her partner of 22 years and father of her four children.
She said the woman was “one of my best friends” and that their children played together when they were little.
But the woman started “yelling and screaming, stupid carry-on stuff” at Ms Scott’s husband while Ms Scott was inside unpacking a food shop, she said.
She denied being personally involved in the argument and said she could hear it.
“The last time I saw Michael he walked out the back gate to tell Tracey to get off the property,” she said.
“At the end of the day, there are kids’ lives who have been ruined. A good man’s been killed.”
She strenuously denied her late husband had a weapon.
Taylor admitted to the court he stabbed Mr Wilson with the garden shears.
But he said he feared for his own safety at the time.
He said he heard the three others arguing while he was lying in bed.
“I thought, ‘here we go again’,” he said.
He then heard his wife being threatened by Mr Wilson, he said.
He grabbed the half-pair of shears and went outside to find his wife screaming with fear and in a headlock, he said.
He said Mr Wilson had a knife and that he stabbed Mr Wilson as a “reflex action” when his opponent went for his stomach with the knife.
“I’m pretty upset about the fact that I’ve taken someone’s life,” he said.
“It’s ruined not only (his) family, it’s ruined my family – it’s ruined two really nice families.
“I can’t give Mr Wilson back his life but I am very sorry that his life was taken.”
Justice Paul Coghlan will decide Taylor’s sentence for manslaughter.
The pre-sentence plea hearing continues on Wednesday.