source : the age
Three men who killed a Queensland father in a suburban shooting where 10 shots were fired in seven seconds have been sentenced, with two walking from court on Thursday.
Carlo Piero Stewart, 31, died during a confrontation between two groups of men involving rapid gunfire and baseball bats after a dispute over stolen motorbikes at Ipswich, west of Brisbane in 2021.
Stewart was shot in the thighs and back with a handgun, after he had tried to retrieve stolen unregistered trail bikes that had been sold to Brayden Alan Wilson-Knight.
Wilson-Knight drove with another man, Tye Joshua Bickle, and a teenager, who was 16 at the time, to where Stewart’s group had agreed to exchange the bikes.
The victim instead went to Wilson-Knight’s home in North Booval with nine other men, where they approached his family disguised in masks and hoods. Wilson-Knight, who returned back to the property, had armed himself with a gun.
During the fight between the two groups, Bickle ended up with the gun. Bickle discharged the gun 10 times within seven seconds, the Supreme Court heard.
Stewart was hit by the gunfire, and driven from the scene, while Wilson-Knight, Bickle, and Wilkins were deliberately struck by a small SUV as they left the scene on foot.
The trio were charged with murder, before pleading guilty to manslaughter and two counts each of grievous bodily harm.
In sentencing the trio on Thursday, Justice Peter Callaghan said, from the outset, the potential for trouble was present, and both groups were aware of that.
Callaghan said Wilson-Knight had armed himself with a handgun, and he was confronted by a group of 10 men, which would have been a chilling scene given his children were at the property.
He gave Wilkins, his younger brother, a bat, which may have been for self-defence, but knew he was involving Wilkins in a bad situation, Callaghan said.
Bickle was said to have no knowledge of the gun, but had been hit in the head with a bat by Stewart, and was suffering a significant injury at the time, the court heard.
“It seems likely that the weapon was thrown to him in a fast-breaking situation,” Callaghan said. “He did not then fire until a matter of seconds later after backing away from the conflict, and after he had been hit in the head with a bat.”
Callaghan said Bickle remained scared and in a state of panic, and was dazed and disoriented when he fired the gun.
“His fear was persistent and intense enough for him to propel himself across a river whilst suffering from a fractured skull,” Callaghan said.
Callaghan said while Wilson-Knight was not the principal offender, his role in introducing the handgun to the situation was a dominant influence.
“He was the one who chose to change the course of those events by obtaining the gun. In doing so, he escalated the potential level of criminality by an order of magnitude,” Callaghan said.
The court heard the gun was obtained before he was aware of the threat to his family.
“For his own purposes and without telling them that he had a weapon, he recruited Bickle and the much younger Wilkins, thereby breaching the duty he owed as an older brother to Wilkins,” Callaghan said.
He produced the gun before serious violence had occurred and attempted to fire it. These actions were the catalysts for the violence which followed, Callaghan found.
The court heard Stewart, who was described as a “lovable larrikin” by his mother, had many hopes and dreams. His sister had wanted him to walk her down the aisle at her wedding.
“Losing Carlo took a piece of me that I will never get back,” she said in her victim statement.
Callaghan said the victim was a much loved son and father, and someone who had been turning his life around.
“Nothing that happens in these proceedings will change what is for [the victim’s family] an awful reality,” Callaghan said.
Callaghan sentenced Wilson-Knight to nine years’ imprisonment, and given a parole eligibility date of April 2028.
Bickle was sentenced to a wholly suspended prison term of five years. Wilkins, who Callaghan said was conscripted and armed by his own brother, was also given a wholly suspended term of five years imprisonment.
Bickle and Wilkins were both granted parole on Thursday.
Bickle comforted Wilson-Knight in the dock as the sentence was handed down before a packed courtroom.
Stewart’s mother declined to comment to media outside court, explaining the difficulty of losing her son.
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