Director of Public Prosecutions v DJE

[2006] VSC 339

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA Not Restricted

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

No. 1402 of 2006

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

DJE

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JUDGE:	TEAGUE J
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	4 September 2006
DATE OF SENTENCE:	20 September 2006
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v DJE
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2006] VSC 339

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Criminal Law- Sentencing – Murder by 17 year old of friend using an axe – Alcohol a factor – Many mitigating considerations including plea of guilty, youth, remorse and good prospects of rehabilitation – 14 years imprisonment -  9 years non-parole period.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Mr T. Gyorffy	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr M. O’Connell	Dotchin & Co

HIS HONOUR:

1. DJE, you have pleaded guilty to the murder of Jarrod Heeps at Warburton on Saturday, 2 July 2005.  You killed him by striking several blows to his head with an axe.  Both of you had been drinking an excessive amount of alcohol in the preceding hours.

1. As at 2 July 2005, you and Jarrod Heeps were both teenagers.  You were then 17 years of age. At 18, he was the older by six months.  Jarrod Heeps was a close friend of yours.  The two of you had been living in the same apartment at Warburton for some months prior to July of last year.  You generally got on well together.  At times, he was slow to pay to you his contribution towards the rent for the apartment.  That was a matter that you had discussed with him.  It was also a matter that you had raised with other friends.  On the night of Friday 1 July, leading into the early morning of 2 July, that slow payment issue took on a significance it scarcely deserved. It seems that that may have been because of the over-consumption of alcohol by both of you.

1. On the Friday, you and Jarrod Heeps had been drinking with other friends.  At times you did so separately.  At times you did so together.  Late on the Friday night, the two of you were drinking together for a time at the home of your sister, which was but a few minutes walk from your apartment.  Jarrod Heeps left your sister’s home alone.  Before he left, the issue of his slow payment had been raised with him, but not by you.  After he left, you and two friends went out in a car.  You tried without success to get money from a bank for more petrol for the car.  During that drive, you spoke of your then anger towards Jarrod Heeps.  You did not clearly state the reason for the anger.  Unable to get the money, you were driven back to the apartment.

1. You alighted from the car well ahead of your two friends.  You went into the apartment.  There, you picked up an axe that was kept at hand to cut wood for the open fire.  You took the axe into the bedroom of Jarrod Heeps.  He was sleeping on a couch near his bed.  He was still in his street clothes.  You struck with the axe several blows to his head and shoulders.  Death would have ensued quickly.

1. Those blows were mindlessly struck, as was apparent from what you said and did in the hours that followed.  You emotionally told your friends that you had killed Jarrod Heeps and that that was very bad.  You told the police several times that you could not explain why you had killed him.

1. On any view, your excessive consumption of alcohol played a part.  It goes some way to explaining what is very hard to understand. That is that, with an axe, you brutally killed a friend who had not provoked you, and you did so while he slept.  An axe is a particularly lethal weapon.  Clearly, the killing was not planned, but done on the spur of the moment while you were drunk.  Your blood alcohol level was tested at around 7 a.m.  That was about five to five and a half hours after Jarrod Heeps died. The reading was then 0.062%.  The blood alcohol reading of Jason Heeps was 0.13%. If your blood alcohol had been tested at about the time that you killed Jarrod Heeps, the result was likely to have been around the same mark as his.  While the alcohol may partly explain what you did, it provides no excuse.

1. I have read, and have listened to the reading in court of, six victim impact statements.  Three were prepared by Julie, Don and Lorraine Chitty, respectively the mother, the maternal grandfather and grandmother of Jarrod Heeps.  Another three were prepared by Rodney, Michael and Hamza Heeps, respectively the father, sister, and brother of Jarrod Heeps.  For them, it is the harder to bear the loss of a close and beloved relative because he was so young.  There is the added frustration stemming from the senselessness that a life full of potential was taken.  The effects on sleep, on mood, even on their own desire to live are painful.  The pain remains deep and is even deeper at times of birthdays, and other anniversaries when there comes the sad recall, in his absence, of memories of happy occasions in his presence.

1. I turn to your background.  You are now 18 years of age, having been born in November 1987.  You have two siblings.  Your parents separated when you were in primary school. You lived at times with each of your father and your mother.  Each remained supportive of you.  You started to live independently from the age of 15, while still continuing your education.  That added independence seems to have contributed to some trouble at one school, including an expulsion, and to some experimentation with illegal drugs and to more than the occasional bout of binge drinking of alcohol.  You have had to appear before the Children’s Court, but not to face a major charge.  An amplification of matters of your background is to be found in the reports of Drs Flower and Carroll, who are satisfied that you have no major mental health problems.

1. It goes without saying that any murder in which a young man is brutally killed with an axe is a very serious crime, and must be punished with a long prison sentence.  On the other hand, there are a number of mitigating factors, the foremost being your youth and your plea of guilty. Your sentence would have been years longer, if you had been older and had not pleaded guilty.  Also to be weighed in your favour are the strong indications of genuine remorse and the very good prospects of rehabilitation.  You have behaved well while in youth detention.  You have done appropriate courses there. How long you remain in youth detention is not a matter for me.  I am handing down sentence this morning, on notice to the appropriate authorities, to enhance the prospect of your remaining there somewhat longer.  You are continuing with your education.  You have a supportive family.  I have noted the supportive letters tendered on the plea.

1. I declare, and direct that it be recorded, that you have served 446 days by way of pre-sentence detention to today.  I make the orders for retention of the forensic sample and for the destruction of the axe that have been sought and not objected to.  I impose a sentence of fourteen years.  I fix a non-parole period of nine years.