Jerad Gurruwiwi: Second man jailed for March 2023 fatal bashing at Rapid Creek

The second of three men charged with the bashing death of a 39-year-old man at Rapid Creek Business Village has been jailed after pleading guilty to the “persistent, brutal, cowardly attack”.

The Rapid Creek Business Village, the scene of the March 7, 2023 killing of a 39-year-old Milingimbi man. Picture: Annabel Bowles

A second man charged with participating in the bashing death of a 39-year-old man at Rapid Creek Business Village has been jailed for his role in the “persistent, brutal, cowardly attack”.

Jerad Gurruwiwi, 19, appeared in the Supreme Court at Darwin on Wednesday after earlier pleading guilty to committing a violent act causing death, and an unrelated charge of robbing a bottle shop.

The court heard Gurruwiwi and 33-year-old Brendan Marrtjiku became involved in an argument with the deceased, who was from Milingimbi, on the evening of March 7 last year.

The intoxicated victim swung his belt at one of the men, striking them in the head, but then they hunted him down after he attempted to flee and bashed him to death in what Justice Sonia Brownill described as a “persistent, brutal, cowardly attack”.

At Gurruwiwi’s sentencing hearing, Justice Brownhill told the court Gurruwiwi’s role in killing the man was “completely out of propertion” to the group’s earlier confrontation with their drunk victim.

CCTV allegedly showing a group including Gurruwiwi and Marrtjiku around the time of the bashing death at Rapid Creek Business Village. Picture: Supplied

There was no “lengthy premeditation” in the decision to bash him to death, but there was ample opportunity to call the attack off when he was fleeing, she found.

“Drunken, senseless violence and people attacking each other with and without weapons … happens all too much,” Justice Brownhill said.

She told the court Gurruwiwi, one of 10 siblings, witnessed domestic violence and alcohol abuse growing up, and developed his own alcohol addiction once moving to Darwin from his hometown of Galiwin’ku, at 18.

A pre-sentence report found Gurruwiwi was prone to being influenced by anti-social peers, but recognised he had a problem with alcohol and wanted to undertake residential rehabilitation.

In his favour was his young age and complete lack of prior offending.

Justice Brownhill sentenced Gurruwiwi to four years and six months’ imprisonment, backdated to his remand in custody last March.

The sentence will be suspended after the defendant serves two years, on condition that Gurruwiwi submit to the supervision of a Probation and Parole officer for 18 months, and abstain from alcohol and drugs.

Last week, Marrtjiku, Gurruwiwi’s co-defendant, was jailed for a maximum of five years and seven months, with a three-year non-parole period, after pleading guilty to a charge of committing a violent act causing death.

A third co-defendant, Joseph Wunungmurra, is yet to enter a plea to his charge of murder.

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Nineteen months after her son was killed, Judy Gungunbuy watched as one of two men involved in the “persistent, brutal and cowardly attack” was condemned to five years in prison.

On Wednesday, Brendan Marrtjiku was sentenced in the Supreme Court for his role in the fatal bashing of a 39-year-old man from Milingimbi at the Rapid Creek Business Village.

The 33-year-old and his 18-year-old co-accused Jared Gurruwiwi pleaded guilty last month to committing a violent act causing death.

A third man Joseph Wunungmurra is expected to face a murder trial in 2025.

Judy Gungunbuy (seated), the mother of a 39-year-old Milingimbi man killed in a Rapid Creek car park brawl, with his aunt Joanne Garrawurra (left) and other family members outside the Supreme Court in Darwin. Picture: Zizi Averill

Justice Sonia Brownhill said the three co-accused and the Milingimbi man were drinking together at the Rapid Creek car park on March 7, 2023 when an argument broke out.

Justice Brownhill said the intoxicated 39-year-old man hit Marrtjiku with a bottle and started threatening people with his belt before walking away.

It was alleged Gurruwiwi, Marrtjiku and Mr Wunungmurra formed an agreement to attack the older man, with CCTV reportedly capturing their pursuit of him around the Rapid Creek shops.

Gurruwiwi and Marrtjiku admitted to kicking him in the stomach, back and head as he was on the ground.

It is alleged Mr Wunungmurra also stomped on the man’s head, and returned later to beat him with a stick.

Justice Brownhill said the booze-fuelled attack was “persistent, brutal and cowardly”, with the 39-year-old passing away just an hour later.

The court heard when NT Police had to conduct their death-knock on his mother’s doorstep, she fainted from the grief.

Judy Gungunbuy (seated), the mother of a 39-year-old Milingimbi man killed in a Rapid Creek car park brawl, with his aunt Joanne Garrawurra (left) and other family members outside the Supreme Court in Darwin. Picture: Zizi Averill

Justice Brownhill said Ms Gungunbuy had set up a memorial for her son at Rapid Creek and “she goes there and cries for what happened to him”.

“She felt like dying herself.

“The videos she saw on Facebook of the three (alleged) offenders walking away plays in her head.”

Outside the court, Ms Gungunbuy said she raised her son as a “humble” and “gentle person” in Milingimbi, but was not “fit enough” to look after him without the help of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

“I am a mother who always looked after my son,” she said.

“My heart broke into thousands of pieces, and every pieces from my heart told me that I lost him.”

Despite this, Ms Gungunbuy said she still had space in her shattered heart for those involved in her son’s alleged killing: “I love my enemies”.

While Ms Gungunbuy was able to forgive, the man’s aunt Joanne Garrawurra said she still felt a deep anger seeing Marrtjiku and Gurruwiwi in court.

“I saw them and I was angry for them … and I shouted at them ‘why did you kill my son? That’s my only son’,” Ms Garrawurra said.

Justice Brownhill sentenced Marrtjiku to five years and seven months in prison.

He has spent 18-months on remand, and faces a three year non-parole period.