Attempted murder trial hears shooting victim was paralysed on a couch
Body-worn camera footage has captured the shocking moment a shooting victim told police he could not feel his legs. The latest from court.
The shocking moment body-worn camera footage showed a man telling a police officer he could not feel his legs after he was shot in the neck was aired to a Hobart courtroom on Tuesday.
The edited footage taken three years ago in April 2022 at around midnight captured Jade Devine in the minutes after Joshua Michael Murtagh allegedly took out a handgun at a Gagebrook unit and shot Mr Devine in the neck while he was seated on the couch.
Mr Murtagh has pleaded not guilty to one count each of attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm in the incident which left Mr Devine in a wheelchair.
On Tuesday, one of five people in the home at the time of the incident, Keisha Burr, gave evidence in Hobart’s Supreme Court before a jury and Justice Stephen Estcourt.
She said she recalls the moments before the single gunshot was fired, mistaking it for firecrackers.
“I heard a bang from the loungeroom,” Ms Burr said.
“I thought it was fireworks so I jumped and ran out the door.
“I just ran up the road and jumped into a bush … up the servo way … maybe two, three units up the road.”
Ms Burr then returned to the home after not hearing further noise and found Ms Maxfield and Brianna Devine with the victim Jade Devine laying on the couch with a wound to his neck.
Ms Burr told the court she was drinking prior to the incident with her two friends the Devines when they decided to walk over to another friend Ella Maxfield’s unit, where the shooting allegedly took place.
Ms Burr said she and the Devine’s had also smoked methamphetamine prior to arriving at the home, but that the drug was also present at Ms Maxfield’s home.
Defence counsel Ms Clark questioned Ms Burr on the tone of the conversation prior to the shooting, asking if she remembers the “tone changing”.
“Well I thought they was [sic] all talking,” she said.
“It was just a blur, I just wanted to get out.”
The crown prosecution led by Mick Allen called on Tasmania Police Detective Sergeant Bernadette Heywood to give her testimony, who was shift supervisor on the night of the shooting.
The officer, with 20 years of experience, had recorded via her body worn camera the initial moments in which she and four other officers arrived at the Gagebrook property.
“I then observed a male who was lying on the chaise part of a couch, laying on his back with his feet on the ground.
“Ms Devine was assisting the victim and applying pressure to the neck area with white and blue striped towel and Ms Burr was in quite a distressed state.
“I spoke with Ella Maxfield and she said the victim had been shot by Joshua Murtagh with a handgun and he had shot him and run.”
Detective Sergeant Heywood’s body cam footage was played for the jury, capturing the officer issuing a radio alert for Mr Murtagh and offering medial assistance to Mr Devine.
“I can’t feel my legs,” Mr Devine can be heard telling Detective Sergeant Heywood in the footage.
Crown prosecutor Edward Burrows-Cheng also tendered agreed facts to the court between the defence and prosecution about the events immediately following the alleged shooting.
This included that Mr Murtagh dumped the homemade pistol and ammunition at a nearby address and that the homeowner contacted police to alert them that the firearm used in the incident was at the home.
The trial continues.
