Ashley James Fornier cleared of murder of childhood friend Paul Carroll at Watsonville

A man who shot his childhood friend with a semi-automatic rifle was acquitted of murder in Cairns Supreme Court on Friday afternoon.

A man who shot his childhood friend with a semi-automatic rifle was acquitted of a murder charge in the Cairns Supreme Court on Friday afternoon.

On day one of the trial Ashley James Fornier pleaded not guilty to murdering his childhood school friend Paul Carroll at a West Bishoff Mill Rd property on November 23, 2021.

Mr Fornier’s defence team argued he acted in self-defence.

The jury trial, which started last Monday, heard that Paul Carroll, a childhood friend of Mr Fornier, drove with his mother to the Fornier family home where, at 4pm, an argument broke out.

Ashley James Fornier has been acquitted of the murder charge after killing his childhood friend Paul Carroll at a Watsonville property in 2021.

Mr Carroll assaulted Mr Fornier, which resulted in a 2cm gash above Mr Fornier’s eye.

Shortly after that Mr Fornier retrieved an SKS semiautomatic rifle and shot Mr Carroll in the chest.

Mr Carroll died shortly afterwards.

Early in the trial Crown Prosecutor Nathan Crane told the jury it was not a question of “whodunit”, but rather one of why Mr Carroll was shot.

Defence counsel Brydie Bilic told the court the facts of the case were largely agreed between prosecution and defence, but she said it was never Mr Fornier’s intention to kill.

Later in the trial when Mr Fornier took the witness stand he testified he knew exactly where the weapon was stored, but when asked whether he knew if the rifle was loaded he answered “It may have been”.

Paul “Pauly” Carroll fatally shot in Watsonville in November 2021. During the trial Mr Carroll’s police record, which included violent assaults, was presented to the court. Picture: Facebook

He told the court he simply wanted to scare Mr Carroll with the rifle and get him to leave, that he was panicking and in fear for his life.

“I got the gun because I was scared. I wanted Paul to leave. I wanted it to stop,” he told the court.

Mr Fornier’s younger brother Nathan testified that Paul Carroll was a good friend of Ashley’s and he was regarded as “part of the family”.

But Nathan Fornier testified that after the argument broke out, Mr Carroll was “screaming out “F*** youse, I’m going to kill youse all”.

He told the court Mr Carroll was walking angrily and aggressively towards members of the family, and he had already assaulted Ashley Fornier and their father.

“He was screaming out the words, walking and screaming at the same time,” he told the court.

After Nathan Crane and Bridie Bilic summed up the case, Justice James Henry summed up the case for jurors.

They took less than two hours to come to their verdict on Friday afternoon.

Justice Henry ordered that Mr Fornier be discharged and he was released from custody.

Originally published as Ashley James Fornier cleared of murder of childhood friend Paul Carroll at Watsonville