Biannca Edmunds: Wife loses murder appeal over bungled plot that killed both her ex and new husband

A wife jailed after both her husband and ex died in a botched assassination has had her hopes of overturning a murder sentence dashed.

A Melbourne woman who once claimed “I’m not a psycho” while denying she had arranged for her husband to assassinate her ex has had her hopes of overturning a murder conviction dashed.

Biannca Edmunds, now 38, was jailed for 26 years in 2023 after a jury found she had plotted with her husband of two weeks, Glenn Cassidy, 49, to kill her ex-fiance Michael Caposiena, 38, partially motivated by animosity over their co-parenting arrangements.

Cassidy drove to Mr Caposiena’s home with a sawn-off shotgun, forced his way inside and shot him in the head in the afternoon of March 11, 2016.

Biannca Edmunds will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years. Picture: NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

But Mr Caposiena, concerned by Cassidy’s presence, had armed himself with a kitchen knife and fatally stabbed Cassidy before he was killed.

Handing down his sentence, Justice Lex Lasry found Edmunds and Cassidy had carefully orchestrated the plot to avoid incriminating her.

At trial, witnesses, including Edmunds’ own mother, gave evidence that she’d expressed a desire for Mr Caposiena to be killed and pressured Cassidy to follow through.

“If you were a real man, you’d – you’d take care of it, you’d deal with it and you’d sort it out, if you had any balls, you know, you’re spineless, you’re a coward, you’re piss-weak,” one of Cassidy’s friends, Paul Bonner, told the jury.

Justice Lasry found Cassidy was a willing participant “not a mere dupe”.

Edmunds and Glenn Cassidy. Picture: Supplied

Late last year, Edmunds appealed her conviction in Victoria’s Court of Appeal, arguing the trial judge had erred by refusing to allow her lawyers to suggest Cassidy was acting in self-defence when he shot Mr Caposiena.

“To prove Biannca Edmunds committed murder it must be proved beyond reasonable doubt Glen Cassidy committed murder,” her barrister Dermot Dann KC argued.

“Maybe the jury would have rejected any claim of self-defence, but it was a question for the jury on the evidence as it emerged.”

On Tuesday morning, a ruling by Justices Karin Emerton, Lesley Taylor and Peter Kidd was handed down, refusing to give Edmunds leave to appeal.

Neither Edmunds, her legal team or representatives from the Office of Public Prosecutions attended the brief hearing in person.

Edmunds delivered a tearful performance in her police interview. Picture: Supplied/ Supreme Court of Victoria.

Michael Caposiena died almost instantly. Picture: Supplied.

In their written reasons, the panel of three judges found Justice Lasry was correct in his assessment that allowing self-defence to be considered by the jury was “absurd”.

“We have reached the same overall conclusion as that reached by the trial judge that, ‘in all the circumstances of this case, it would be absurd to leave self-defence on that issue’,” they wrote.

The judges found that there was a “reasonable possibility” that Mr Caposiena had begun to stab Cassidy before he was aware of the shotgun, but Cassidy’s home invasion “must have unquestionably indicated” that he intended to do harm.

Edmunds and Cassidy surveilled Michael Caposiena house and drew the map to identify access points to his house, where street lights and security cameras were, and barking dogs. Picture: Supplied

But they said Edmunds’ appeal fell down on the issue of whether Cassidy was acting in self-defence, finding the only reasonable view of the evidence was that he was continuing to carry out the murder plot.

“The hypothesis that, in the midst of this murderous attack, Cassidy instantly abandoned his resolve, or weakened in his determination to complete his original design to kill, has a real air of unreality about it,” they said.

“Caposiena was entitled to defend himself to repel this intrusion and attack.”

Edmunds will be eligible for parole in January 2042 after serving 20 years of her sentence.

Originally published as Biannca Edmunds: Wife loses murder appeal over bungled plot that killed both her ex and new husband