Luke Shaw initially denied involvement and claimed he was being framed over fatal fight
The man accused of stabbing a George Town man to death rang a police officer, to whom he was related, to proclaim his innocence.
A George Town man rang a police officer within hours of the death of a man claiming he was being framed and falsely accused, a Supreme Court jury in Launceston heard.
Senior Constable Ashlee Goss was giving evidence in the trial of Luke Anthony Shaw, 34, Paul William Shaw, 35, and Patrick Kenneth Dolbey, 40, of George Town who have all pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Wayne Jenkins on October 22, 2022 in George Town.
Senior-constable Goss said she was a cousin of the Shaw brothers.
She said that she received a phone call from the Mr Shaw’s mother, Linda Jones, at 2.30am on October 23, 2022 saying that Mr Shaw would ring her within hours.
At 4.29am she received a call from Mr Shaw who said he was aware of an incident in Lambert Street but denied involvement.
Senior Constable Goss said that 15 hours later at 5.30pm she received an email from Luke Shaw.
In the email he said he was stressed out, emotional, crying, upset and sad especially about a lack of justice.
He said he was being framed and falsely accused and wanted to be cleared across all matters.
Mr Shaw sent Senior Constable Goss a series of photographs of injuries relating to the incident.
Under cross examination by Peter Kilduff, the defence barrister for Luke Shaw, Senior Constable Goss said that she took notes of the phone call but they had been lost.
“Was he stressed out?,” Mr Kilduff asked.
“He was quite heightened but that was not unusual for Luke,” she said.
Detective Senior Constable Harley Castles said that on October 24 Mr Dolbey offered to take police to the murder weapon.
She said she went with Mr Dolbey to George Town but was unsuccessful in finding the knife.
Cross examined by Fran McCracken, defence barrister for Mr Dolbey, Senior Constable Castles agreed that police later found the knife in the general vicinity of the area indicated by Mr Dolbey.
Toxicologist Neil McLachlan-Troup said a toxicology examination from Mr Jenkins after his death found a blood alcohol reading of 0.144.
He said other drugs including valium, temazepam, THC the active ingredient in cannabis, and paracetamol would have lowered Mr Jenkins inhibitions and affected his balance, judgment and perception.
The jury heard in the first week of the trial that after he received a phone call from a housemate of Mr Shaw’s that Mr Jenkins obtained a baseball bat and walked towards Luke Shaw’s home yelling in the street: “Luke Shaw you are a woman bashing f---ing dog.”
However, in Lambert Street Mr Jenkins was overwhelmed by three men and stabbed 11 times in the back and buttocks by Luke Shaw.
Defence barristers say the men acted in self defence and did not act with a common purpose to assault Mr Jenkins.
The trial continues on Tuesday afternoon.
