Jury asked to decide if man who left victim a quadriplegic intended to kill
A jury must decide whether a homemade gun accidentally discharged or was deliberately fired at a man's head, leaving the victim permanently paralysed. What the defence and prosecution had to say in closing.
A Supreme Court jury has been asked to consider what they would think if someone “pointed a loaded gun right between their eyes” as part of the last day of a trial of a man accused of shooting another man in the neck, leaving him “an incomplete quadriplegic”.
Joseph Michael Murtagh has pleaded not guilty to one count each of attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm in the shooting at a Gagebrook unit in April 2022, which left 33-year-old Jade Devine in a wheelchair.
Prosecution and defence lawyers provided their closing addresses to Justice Stephen Estcourt on Thursday, with crown prosecutor Mick Allen stating Mr Murtagh discharged the homemade steel firearm “with the intention of killing Mr Devine”.
“What I suggest the collective consideration paints for you is an overwhelming picture of a deliberate, intentional shooting of Jade Devine by the accused with the intention to kill, starting with the accused’s decision to bring a loaded gun into the home that night, going next to his decision to produce it as and when he did and for no apparent reason, to point it directly at Mr Devine as he sat defenceless on the couch a short distance away and fired a single shot at his head,” he said.
Mr Allen referred to testimony Mr Devine that Mr Murtagh walked up to the victim after he shot him and again aimed the gun at his head before running out of the house.
“He was the one person in that room who would remember that moment more than anyone else because he was at the end of that gun barrel,” Mr Allen said.
Yet, defence counsel Rochelle Mainwaring asked the jury to question the credibility of Mr Devine’s evidence and the other three eyewitnesses who were in the unit at the time.
“There were four eyewitnesses in the room – three were tipsy, four admitted to having taken methamphetamine and then at some stage, Mr Murtagh brought out the firearm and it’s gone off,” she said.
“Mr Devine then stated last week that ‘Mr Murtagh came over to me and pointed the gun at me and then ran out’.
“But when he spoke to police in the hospital, he didn’t say the gun had been held against his head.
“His account is also inconsistent with evidence … Ms Maxfield said that the gun was fired and then he ran out the door.
“Brianna Devine also said he ran out the door.”
Ms Mainwaring referred back to the eyewitness testimony provided in the trial, stating there was no evidence Mr Murtagh intentionally pulled the trigger of the gun.
“Given Mr Dutton’s expert testimony on the dangerously light trigger pressure of the gun … Dutton said the gun could have fired by the accidental pressing of the trigger,” she said.
Finally, Ms Mainwaring drew the jury back to the need to prove intention in the charge of attempted murder, stating Mr Murtagh and Mr Devine both did not know each other and neither knew the other person would be at the Gagebrook unit.
“There was no plan for Mr Devine to go to Ms Maxfield’s house that night,” she said.
“Mr Murtagh did not know Mr Devine and could not have known he would be there with Breanna Devine and Keisha Burr on that night.
“To find Mr Murtagh guilty of the charge of attempted murder, you would have to be satisfied that Mr Murtagh wanted Mr Devine dead.”
Justice Estcourt will provide a closing address to the jury on Friday, with the jury expected to retire to consider its verdict.
