Guilty: Jury rules Leeanne Eatts responsible for little boys’ deaths

Almost five years since her two little boys drowned in Townsville’s Ross River, a jury has found her guilty of manslaughter.

Leeanne Chrysilla Eatts (inset), Barak Brian Austral, 5 (known as Junior) and Jhulio Maximus Arturo Sariago 3.

Leeanne Eatts has been found guilty of manslaughter.

The jury was told by a Townsville Supreme Court justice on Wednesday morning it would require a ‘very high degree of negligence’ to find her guilty of the manslaughter of her two young sons in a double drowning.

By 2:30pm, they had come to their result.

The mother was placed into custody, and will return to court on October 5 for a mention.

Eatts, 52, pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of her two sons, Barak Brian Austral, 5 (known as Junior) and Jhulio Maximus Arturo Sariago, 3, who drowned in flooded conditions beside the Ross River in Townsville on February 25, 2019.

Justice David North, in his final instructions to the jury of eight men and four women, was talking about Section 286b of the Queensland Criminal Code, which basically states that Eatts had to take sufficient and reasonable precautions to supervise her two boys and stop them having access to the body of water in which they drowned.

Prosecutor David Nardone explained to the jury at the start of the eight-day trial that the entire case against Eatts centred on her omission in failing to supervise the children adequately, rather than any action she had taken.

Leeanne Eatts outside the Townsville Courthouse. Picture: Shae Beplate.

He explained during the trial that there was one hour and 19 minutes where the two boys were unsupervised on the afternoon of February 25, 2019, and that omission by Eatts was criminal and warranted the charge of manslaughter.

The jury then heard a plethora of witnesses who described seeing Barak and Jhulio outside their Brett Street home in Cranbrook, on that and neighbouring streets, and near the banks of a gully leading into the Ross River.

All of the witnesses were asked by the prosecution if any adults were seen near the boys and in each case the witnesses replied that no adults were present.

There was also evidence that the boys had been to the gully beside the river on the day before their deaths and had been on the bank of the gully and had gotten muddy.

Some witnesses told the court that they heard Eatts chastising the two boys severely for going near the river on February 24.

Defence barrister Tony Kimmins reminded the jury that the prosecution had to prove Eatts’ guilt beyond reasonable doubt and he asked them to beware of hindsight in the witnesses’ comments.

Mr Kimmins pointed out that the majority of the witnesses had seen the boys some distance from water.

He also raised the issue that when the bodies were found, the boys were naked from the waist down and that their underpants and shorts were never located.

He portrayed Eatts as a caring and loving mother who had lost a third son in a tragic motorcycle accident last year and had suffered greatly in the past four-and-a-half years since the double drowning.

Originally published as Guilty: Jury rules Leeanne Eatts responsible for little boys’ deaths