Director of Public Prosecutions v McEachran
[2022] VSC 386
•2 August 2022
| IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | Not Restricted |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
S ECR 2021 0120
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| CHRISTOPHER McEACHRAN |
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JUDGE: | HOLLINGWORTH J |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 20 June 2022 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 2 August 2022 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v McEachran |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2022] VSC 386 |
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CRIMINAL LAW – Sentence – Manslaughter – Armed robbery – Sentenced to a total effective sentence of 9 years and 9 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 7 years.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr N Hutton | Ms A Hogan, Solicitor for Public Prosecutions |
| For Mr McEachran | Mr S Norton | Stary Norton Halphen |
HER HONOUR:
On Thursday, 25 June 2020, you spent much of the day at the Cranbourne home of your friend, Roman Ibrahim. Also there was his friend, Nicole Douglas, whom you had met before. The three of you were joined later that day by Chris Marshall.
Ms Douglas was short of money. Throughout the day, she had been discussing with Mr Ibrahim ways that she could make some money to buy drugs. In your presence, she suggested that they could rob Michael Mammone of his car and sell it for cash. Mr Ibrahim just laughed at the suggestion.
Mr Mammone was an acquaintance of Ms Douglas. They had occasionally exchanged messages and used drugs together. You did not know Mr Mammone. Mr Mammone owned a 2008 BMW sedan, which was his pride and joy.
After Mr Ibrahim went to bed, Ms Douglas said, “That’s out of the question as now he’s in bed.” You said that you could do it with her. She asked you what would happen if Mr Mammone did not hand over the keys. You replied, “He will, because I will scare him”. You said it would be easier if the two of you could get Mr Mammone out of the car. You said you would bring a “toy”, which was clearly a reference to some sort of weapon.
Ms Douglas exchanged Facebook messages with Mr Mammone. Shortly after midnight, Ms Douglas told Mr Mammone to meet her at a nearby primary school.
You and Ms Douglas arranged that you would get to the school carpark first and wait. Ms Douglas would arrive later, meet with Mr Mammone, and lure him out of his car.
Around 1am, you asked Mr Marshall to drive you and Ms Douglas to a place near the school. He needed to make two trips to do so, as he only had room in his car for one passenger. He dropped you off first, and you hid in the carpark.
After Mr Mammone pulled up near the carpark entrance, Ms Douglas spoke to him and persuaded him to drive further into the carpark. She told him that she had dropped some drugs on the ground, and needed his help to look for them. Mr Mammone got out of his car, and they both searched the area. He left the car headlights on and the front door open.
You ran up and said something like “Give us the keys”, then started struggling with Mr Mammone. Mr Mammone managed to pull your hoodie over your head, and you started hitting his legs with something. The two of you ended up on the ground. Mr Mammone was calling for help. You punched him to the head a few times, while holding a knife. Mr Mammone appeared to Ms Douglas to be unconscious.
You started to tie up Mr Mammone’s hands. He started moving. You got onto his back until he stopped moving. You then used cable ties to tie Mr Mammone’s wrists together.
You and Ms Douglas got into Mr Mammone’s car, and you drove away. As you were driving, you said, “He’s not going to get up anytime soon or in a hurry”.
You drove the car a short distance, before leaving it there. You and Ms Douglas walked back to Mr Ibrahim’s house.
Ms Douglas saw a bloodstain on your jacket and asked if it was your blood; you said it wasn’t. She asked if Mr Mammone was dead; you said “No” and “He’ll be right”. She also heard you say that you had slid the knife out slowly from under Mr Mammone.
Mr Mammone’s body was found in the carpark around 7am on the Friday morning. He was lying in the dirt on one side, with his wrists bound together with cable ties, and blood around his head. Under his body was a homemade knife scabbard.
An autopsy revealed a large scalp laceration, bruising to the face, scalp and body, and abrasions to the abdomen, left knee and the back of both hands. Toxicology testing revealed the presence of drugs, including methylamphetamine (“ice”) and cannabis. The exact cause of death was not able to be ascertained. Mr Mammone had a pre-existing heart disease, leading the pathologist to note that one possible cause of death was arrhythmia, which developed in the context of his restraint and the use of ice. However, there is no doubt that Mr Mammone died at the scene, after you assaulted and bound him.
Mr Mammone’s abandoned car was later examined by crime scene examiners. Your fingerprints and DNA were found on it. Your DNA was also found on the homemade scabbard that was lying under Mr Mammone’s body, as well as on the cable ties.
On 7 July 2020, Ms Douglas went to the police station and made a statement implicating both of you. She later pleaded guilty to armed robbery, and was sentenced.
On 23 July 2020, you were arrested. During your police interview, you lied and denied knowing Mr Mammone or anything about the night he died. You said the scabbard belonged to you, but claimed that you has lost it when out for a walk. However, after the interview finished, a police officer overheard you say, “He was alive when I left”.
You were initially charged with murder, armed robbery and unintentional killing in the course or furtherance of a crime of violence. On 1 March 2022, you pleaded guilty to armed robbery and manslaughter, after the prosecution reduced the charges.[1]
[1]At the time of your offending, the maximum penalty for manslaughter was 20 years’ imprisonment. The maximum penalty for armed robbery is 25 years’ imprisonment.
You pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of criminal negligence; that is, that you owed Mr Mammone a duty of care, having assaulted him in the course of the robbery and restrained him in a vulnerable position, and you breached that duty by leaving him in the carpark.
I turn to consider the seriousness of your offending.
You went to the carpark with the intention of robbing Mr Mammone of his car. You had planned the robbery together with Ms Douglas. While you did not initially suggest the idea of robbing Mr Mammone, you readily volunteered to help Ms Douglas with it, and offered to bring a weapon. You were the person who turned it into an armed robbery, by taking a knife with you. You also took cable ties with you (probably taken from Mr Marshall’s car), to incapacitate your intended victim. Although the total time between you volunteering to assist Ms Douglas and the offending may have only been in the vicinity of about an hour or so, this was not spontaneous offending.
Mr Mammone was lured to a remote location, in the middle of the night, by someone he knew and trusted. Having been tricked into getting out of his car, he was confronted by two offenders who were intent on taking his car. He was unarmed, and did nothing to start the violence that you inflicted on him. Despite Mr Mammone’s resistance, you overpowered him and knocked him to the ground.
I accept that none of the injuries you inflicted on Mr Mammone were particularly serious, even in combination. I also accept that you may not have known what drugs Mr Mammone had used that day, or about his heart condition. However, you tied him up when he was injured on the ground, and no longer moving. Ms Douglas believed he was unconscious by this stage. Your later remark to her, to the effect that Mr Mammone wasn’t going to be getting up anytime soon, suggests you had some awareness of the seriousness of his predicament. Having rendered Mr Mammone completely helpless, you left him, incapacitated and alone, in a dark carpark in the middle of the night. You drove off in his car. You made no attempt to assist him, or call for help.
As well as leading to Mr Mammone’s death, your actions have had a terrible effect on his family.
Mr Mammone was 47 years old when he died. Victim impact statements were written by his three daughters, his parents and his ex-wife. Mr Mammone’s daughters describe him as a loving and caring parent and grandparent, who was hands-on in raising them, taking part in their extra-curricular activities, teaching them about farming, and taking them on holidays. His family are heartbroken that they will not be able to share the rest of their lives with him.
Mr Mammone’s family have also described how your offending has made them fearful for their own safety, making it difficult for some of them to leave their homes.
There is nothing this court can say or do that will bring back Mr Mammone, or heal the grief and pain caused by your actions. The sentence I am going to impose is not a reflection of the worth or value of Mr Mammone’s life; rather it is a reflection of the large number of factors which judges are required by law to take into account, only one of which is victim impact statements.
I turn to consider your personal circumstances.
You are now 44 years old. You were 42 at the time of the offending. You were born and raised in the Warragul area.
You were exposed to violence and deprivation from an early age, including suffering beatings from your father. Your parents separated when you were 12, after which you lived with your father. Your mother was absent from your life from the age of 12 until your early twenties.
Your father gave you access to alcohol and cannabis, and often left you unsupervised. During your teens, you also spent several extended periods homeless.
You have had a limited education. You struggled with literacy and numeracy, and stopped all schooling during year 9. Your drug and alcohol abuse increased, and you engaged with negative peers.
You have an extensive criminal history, beginning with your first appearance in an adult court at the age of 17. You have been regularly in and out of prison since you were 18, although your last period of imprisonment before this offending was in 2013.
Many of your convictions are for property and drug-related offences. You also have numerous convictions for failing to answer bail, and contravening or failing to comply with community-based orders. Of greater concern is the fact that you have multiple convictions for violent offences, and offences involving weapons, including firearms. Your current offending is your most serious to date, in so far as it resulted in the loss of a life.
You have been in custody since 23 July 2020. I accept that your experience in custody has been made more difficult by the various restrictions that have been in place in custody during the COVID-19 pandemic.
You are entitled to a discount on the sentence to be imposed upon you in recognition of your guilty plea, and its utilitarian value, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when jury trials have been delayed. Your plea has facilitated the course of justice. The community has, by your plea, been spared the time and cost of a trial. Because of your plea, witnesses, and the family and friends of Mr Mammone have been spared what would have been a traumatic trial for all concerned.
Although you only pleaded guilty to manslaughter in March 2022, I treat this as a relatively early plea for the following reasons. You pleaded guilty to armed robbery at the committal hearing in May 2021. Your co-accused, Ms Douglas, failed to appear at the committal. After she had been arrested, pleaded and sentenced, she underwent a s 198B examination in December 2021. After that examination, the charges were amended, and you pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
You submit that you are entitled to an increased discount, because you could have argued causation and sought a full acquittal by running a trial. I reject that submission. Although you may have had a stronger causation argument for a manslaughter charge based on an unlawful and dangerous act, the case against you for negligent manslaughter was always an extremely strong one.
Apart from any remorse which is inherent in your plea, you have demonstrated no remorse for your actions.
I regard your prospects of rehabilitation as poor, for the following reasons.
You are poorly educated, and have no employment history. You have a long and extensive criminal history, including multiple terms of imprisonment. You have not been able to address your ongoing substance abuse problems, notwithstanding numerous court orders requiring you to undertake counselling and treatment as conditions of community-based orders.
You have had few adult relationships. Your father died about 12 months before this offending. You have no ongoing relationship with your sister or mother. You are still in contact with your 13 year old daughter and her mother. However, there is no evidence of any other persons who may be able to support you upon your eventual release from prison.
Balancing as best I am able the competing considerations laid down in the Sentencing Act 1991, and having regard to the matters I have just discussed, for the offence of manslaughter (charge 2), I sentence you to imprisonment of 9 years. I treat that as the base sentence.
For the offence of armed robbery (charge 1), I sentence you to 3 years’ imprisonment. Although the two offences occurred as part of the same incident, they involved different criminality. There needs to be some accumulation of the two sentences to reflect that matter. I order that 9 months of the sentence for armed robbery is to be served cumulatively on the base sentence.
That makes a total effective sentence of 9 years and 9 months’ imprisonment. I fix a period of 7 years as the period you must serve before you become eligible for parole.
Had you not pleaded guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of 12 years’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 9 years.
Further, I declare that the period to be reckoned as already served under this sentence is 740 days, not including today’s date. I direct that there be noted in the records of the court the fact that such a declaration was made and its details.
I have also made the disposal order sought by the prosecution.
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