Victorian drug dealer blamed for shooting death of Jake Anderson-Brettner over ‘six-figure debt’

A jury is set to begin deliberations in the murder trial of Launceston man Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler, as both sides deliver their closing remarks. READ THEIR FINAL WORDS >>

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A JURY is set to begin deliberations in the murder trial of Launceston man Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler.

Mr Sadler, 29, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jake Anderson-Brettner at his Riverside home on August 15, 2018.

Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates said during his closing address on Tuesday the only rational conclusion from the evidence taken together in the circumstantial case was that it was a premeditated killing by Mr Sadler.

Jake Daniel Anderson- Brettner. Picture: Facebook

“He planned the murder, executed it, disposed of the body in the most brutal way; it shows how angry he was at Mr Anderson-Brettner,” Mr Coates said.

He said Mr Sadler’s account that Mr Anderson-Brettner, 24, was shot by one of the three drug dealers from Victoria at his Riverside home over a debt was a “complete and utter fantasy”.

He said the method used to dismember Mr Anderson-Brettner’s body, the disposal of the body parts in wheelie bins around the Launceston area and the fact Mr Sadler had asked his partner Gemma Clark to look up where the bins were being collected, were among the actions consistent with the song Dead Body Disposal that Ms Clark said he had been listening to at the time.

He said Mr Sadler’s DNA was found on the hand grip, magazine, silencer, trigger guard, muzzle and remaining outside area of the 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol, and there had been evidence from forensic scientist Carl Grosser that there was as much of a difference as 98 per cent to 2 per cent in some areas when comparing it to a secondary contributor.    

Mr Coates said it was impossible the shooting happened the way described in Mr Sadler’s evidence, given the evidence of Dr Christopher Lawrence, the forensic pathologist who completed an autopsy of Mr Anderson-Brettner’s torso, who said the first shot was fired into his back.

Jake Anderson-Brettner’s fiancée with supporters leaving the Launceston Supreme Court on Monday (May 5, 2021)

In his closing remarks, defence counsel Greg Richardson said Mr Sadler was guilty of being an accessory after the fact of murder, not the killing of Mr Anderson-Brettner.

Mr Richardson said the DNA of a second unidentifiable person on the hand grip and trigger was “enough to create reasonable doubt”.

He said Mr Anderson-Brettner’s fiance Katlyn Roney had lied to the court to protect the reputation of her partner.  

Mr Richardson said the jury should also question the accuracy of the evidence provided to the court by Michael Jenkins and Thomas Larissey when they were prepared to lie to the court.

He said Ms Clark had played a significant role in the disposal of the body and cleaning up, and was “trying to push responsibility off her shoulder and onto someone else” to downplay her role.

“You’re going to have to make judgments on what she said Jack did and I say no, you can’t rely on her,” Mr Richardson told the jury.

He said too much had been made of the song Dead Body Disposal: “it doesn’t tell you how to lead someone up the stairs and shoot them”.

Interstate drug dealer blamed for shooting death – May 17

THE Riverside man accused of the murder of Jake Anderson-Brettner has denied killing him, telling a court Mr Anderson-Brettner was killed by a Victorian drug supplier over a debt.

Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler – who is accused of shooting Mr Anderson-Brettner three times, before dismembering and disposing of his body parts – has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Taking to the stand in his Launceston Supreme Court trial on Monday, Mr Sadler said an arrangement had been made for three men from Victoria to meet with Mr Anderson-Brettner at his house on August 15, 2018, to discuss Mr Anderson-Brettner’s “six-figure debt”.

Mr Sadler said they had been talking about the debt when it became heated when Mr Anderson-Brettner had received a call after they had both been told to put their phones in the microwave and the men had heard he had been successful in receiving a home loan and he hadn’t paid off the debt.

During questioning from defence counsel Greg Richardson, he said he took Mr Anderson-Brettner upstairs to the room of the house known as the shoe room to show him the pill press he had set up for the manufacture of ecstasy to try to defuse the situation.

Mr Sadler told the jury the three other men had followed them into the room.

“They pointed the gun at both of us and then turned the gun on Jake and shot him,” he said.

Mr Sadler said there were multiple shots fired.

He told the jury the men told him it was his fault and when he asked what he was meant to do, they had said: “Do what we do, cut up the body and get rid of it.”

He said he used an axe and a knife to cut up the body and with his partner, Gemma Clark, disposed of Mr Anderson-Brettner’s torso at the Sideling, and put the other body parts into garbage bags and into wheelie bins in the Launceston area.

Forensic police search a tip for Jake Anderson-Brettner’s body after he was killed in 2018.

Mr Sadler told the jury the men had said the debt was his to pay back.

He said he placed a large amount of money in the Jeep that was moved and parked a few streets away and had “put the key to the Jeep in a light fixture outside the house so they could go collect it”.

The court has previously heard the car was later found by police on Andrea Place with $87,480 in cash inside.

Mr Sadler said Anderson-Brettner had come to the arranged meeting with about $10,000.

He said the shoe room had been lined in plastic in preparation for him to manufacture ecstasy.

He said his gun, which was purchased about 12 months before Mr Anderson-Brettner’s death, was “never hidden” because “anyone coming to my house I trusted” and the pistol had been on the kitchen table on the day of the meeting.

Mr Sadler said he had formed a friendship with Mr Anderson-Brettner and had been asked by him in 2014 if he “knew anyone who could supply him with a large amount ecstasy”, which he had facilitated and earned a “finder’s fee” before later manufacturing the pills supplied to Mr Anderson-Brettner and supplies that were transported to Victoria.

He said he also arranged for Mr Anderson-Brettner to be supplied with cocaine in 2017, telling the jury he had “vouched” for Mr Anderson-Brettner to his connections in Victoria, who had later been putting pressure on him over the debt.

During his cross examination, Director of the Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates asked Mr Sadler to name the three men who had visited.

Mr Sadler refused to do so.

“What are their names?” Mr Coates said.

“My family is still out there,” Mr Sadler responded.

Asked by Mr Coates if he couldn’t name them because nobody else came, he responded “that’s a lie”.

The prosecution has alleged the pill press was never in the house and the shoe room had been prepared by Mr Sadler to kill Mr Anderson-Brettner, which he has denied.

Mr Coates asked why he took considerable time to remove the items used to manufacture the drugs, including taking the 75kg pill press to a storage shed in Legana, but had “only managed to hide the gun at the back door” and the silencer next door.

“I’m a drug manufacturer not a hit man, it was the first time I’d been in a situation like this,” Mr Sadler said.

Closing arguments begin on Tuesday.