Jason Clifford Gordon sentenced as accessory after execution style murder of Jarrod Leigh Turner

A man who pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of the cold-blooded murder of Jarrod Leigh Turner has been sentenced. HIS PUNISHMENT >>

An accessory after the fact of the execution-style murder of Jarrod Leigh Turner has been jailed.

Shannon James Duffy shot Mr Turner in the head with a 12 gauge shotgun in April 2019 while the deceased was urinating on the side of Colebrook Road, Richmond.

The act devastated his family and saw Justice Michael Brett sentence Duffy in November last year to life behind bars with an 18-year non-parole period.

More than a year later, Justice Brett sat at the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Thursday to sentence Jason Clifford Gordon for his involvement.

Gordon had pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder.

Murder victim Jarrod Turner.

Justice Brett said Gordon had been an associate of Duffy, who had planned to kill Mr Turner “for an alleged sexual assault which he believed Mr Turner had committed against a female”.

Early the next morning – hours after Duffy killed Turner – the murderer met with Gordon and he became aware of the crime.

“You assisted … in a course of conduct designed to cover up Duffy’s involvement in Mr Turner’s death and to help him avoid apprehension by the police,” Justice Brett said.

Gordon drove to collect Duffy from a home he was hiding in and brought him to a shed, before taking him to a woman’s house in Snug.

“The purpose was to seek her assistance in disposing of property and covering up Duffy’s involvement in the murder,” Justice Brett said.

The scene outside the Supreme Court of Tasmania after the sentencing of Shannon James Duffy over the murder of Jarrod Leigh Turner. Murder victim Jarrod Leigh Turner's sister Lakeisha Pearce and mother Michelle Bradley with a picture of Jarrod outside the Supreme Court of Tasmania.

Gordon drove with them to the seaside where the cut up murder weapon was thrown away.

The court heard Gordon has previously been imprisoned for harbouring an escaped prisoner.

The 34-year-old has three young children and had a difficult upbringing.

“The crime of being an accessory after the fact to murder is inherently serious,” Justice Brett said.

“You were directly and intimately involved in assisting Duffy to avoid police for several days and in the destruction of critical evidence implicating him in the killing.”

Justice Brett sentenced Gordon to five years behind bars, with a non-parole period spanning half the sentence, backdated to February 23 last year.