A JUNEE man accused of murdering 37-year-old Mitchell Robert Ferrario may have been acting in self defence, a Supreme Court jury in Wagga heard this week.
Alan Lawson-Brown pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Ferrario with a kitchen knife about 10.30pm on April 9 last year.
Crown prosecutor Wayne Creasey told the jury, consisting of seven women and five men, it was not a question of whether or not Lawson-Brown stabbed Mr Ferrario as there was little doubt, it was an issue of whether or not it was in self defence.
He said Lawson-Brown’s state of mind at the time would be a critical issue in the trial.
After a delay due to the unavailability of a court monitor, the jury heard Lawson-Brown had been a target in the community for unfounded accusations of paedophilia.
The accusations had led to tension and threats against Lawson-Brown, including from a neighbour and Mr Ferrario, with Mr Lawson-Brown believing the threats were so bad he slept under a bridge on one occasion to avoid trouble.
The jury was told Lawson-Brown contacted police five weeks before the incident to tell police he had been threatened to be shot.
“They did not take details. They were not interested, now look at what has happened,” he told police on the phone minutes after the stabbing.
The jury heard Mr Ferrario had left a party in Goulburn Street to walk to his Hill Street home and in doing so passed Lawson-Brown’s unit.
A witness in a bedroom across the street from the unit, Kathryn Knyenburg told the jury on Tuesday, she heard the words, “Get out of here you freak” and the voice was not Lawson-Brown’s.
Lawson-Brown did leave his unit telling police during an interview Mr Ferrario had said: ‘I’m going to get you, I’m going to kill you, we are going to get rid of you.’
Believing Mr Ferrario was coming inside his unit, Lawson-Brown told police he went inside and grabbed a knife.
“He continued to come up and I just said go away, your drunk. He kept on coming,” Lawson-Brown said.
Lawson-Brown then stabbed Mr Ferrario in the left side of the chest inflicting him with a wound 3.5 centimetres wide and 1.5cm long.
He told police: “I had to protect myself.”
Mr Ferrario walked some 60 to 70 metres back to the party he had just attended and collapsed after calling out a friend’s name. Mr Creasey told the jury the evidence would show by the time the ambulance arrived Mr Ferrario was unconscious.
He died before arriving at Junee Hospital.
Mr Creasey asked: Could the accused have left the door? Could he have locked the door? Did he need to confront the deceased?
“He was in his own home, he was not in the street, he had a screen door – a security door –and a wooden door (between him and Mr Ferrario in the first instance).
“There is no evidence to suggest the deceased came at the accused at all with any sort of weapon in his possession.”
Lawson-Brown’s defence counsel Janet Manuell told the jury evidence would show on the night in question Mr Ferrario had a blood alcohol reading of .285 and he had ingested cannabis.
She asked the jury to keep an open mind throughout the proceedings.
“There is always a sympathy you feel as a human being in the death of a loved one. This is no different.”
“You have to put the sympathy to one side and not come to a real conclusion until it is debated in the jury room after you’ve heard the evidence.”
“It was Mr Ferrario who was on the ramp, he was the one who made the approach to Mr Lawson-Brown’s on the night, he was the one on Mr Lawson-Brown’s property and the one, we say, who was making threats against Mr Lawson Brown.”
The trial will continue tomorrow.
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