Director of Public Prosecutions v Stone

[2014] VCC 1406

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA Revised
(Not) Restricted
Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 14-01187

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

LEIGH STONE

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MULLALY
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	25 August 2014
DATE OF SENTENCE:	25 August 2014
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Stone
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2014] VCC 1406

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr M. Roper	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr A. Zingler	Robert Stary Lawyers

HIS HONOUR: 

1Leigh Stone, in the early hours of 27 March this year, you and your de facto partner, Casey La Porta, went to a 7-Eleven store in St Albans.  It is said that La Porta went into the shop and loitered about essentially making sure the coast was clear.  She disputes this and is going to trial.

2You then burst in wearing a frightening mask, gloves and brandishing a meat cleaver.  You demanded money, however the shop assistant retreated behind a locked door.  You tried to get the register open, but could not.  You then stole a significant amount of cigarettes.

3The police were quickly called and they were able to identify La Porta from the CCTV footage and from that, ultimately arrested the two of you on 19 April 2014.

4You denied you were the masked man in your police interview.  La Porta denied she was involved in the armed robbery at all.

5You did not maintain your denial but indicated that you would plead guilty at an early point and you have done so.  Accordingly, your sentence will be less that it would have been had you pleaded not guilty.

6Your early indication of your plea of guilty entitles you to a significant benefit.  You have been in custody since 19 April 2014.  There is no victim impact statement, but have no doubt that this was a frightening episode for the shop assistant.

7As I have said before, and these comments have been endorsed, as it turns out by the Court of Appeal, that is people who work late at night and necessarily with cash, must have a sense that if armed offenders terrorise them, then the court will play its role in denouncing the criminal conduct and deterring others from embarking on a similar course in the future.  And the courts will do this by imposing stern terms of imprisonment.

8You are now 30 years old.  You have prior convictions dating back to 2003 when you were 18 and 19 years old.  These include crimes of violence and crimes involving weapons.

9You have served a number of prison terms as a consequence, including prison terms for breaching suspended sentences.  You have be granted parole in the past, your counsel emphasised that your last parole was successfully negotiated.  This was from December 2010 until June 2012.

10In that time, you gained employment and remained out of trouble.  To elaborate on your employment, you gained work in landscaping and road maintenance and as a forklift driver.  This is to your credit and Mr Stone, it must prove to you that you have the capacity to do and be like so many of your peers, that is a hard working family man who stays out of trouble.

11In that period, you have been able to stay off heroin which has been your lifelong problem.  You were a methadone program.  You became homeless because of problems with the Department of Human Services who are involved in monitoring the care of your four children.  You were living with your ever-generous mother but you had to leave there, fearing that if you did not, then your children may be taken from your mother's care.

12In that context, you commenced using heroin again and took up using that dreadful drug, ice.  This inevitably produced disastrous consequences.  The armed robbery was driven by your desire to get money for more heroin and potentially, ice.

13As to you background, you were an only child raised by your mother.  Your father committed suicide when you were an infant.  You remain very close to your mother who has been your pillar of support.  She continues to care for your four children which is a very significant and heavy burden.

14Your time at school was interrupted and unproductive.  Your resort to aggression meant that you were not easily managed and you simply did not go to school beyond year 7.

15You spent your time with other idle young men in the streets acting aggressively and taking up drugs.  You first smoked cannabis and then turned to heroin.  It has, as I have said, been your biggest problem since before you were 20.

16You have had periods of abstinence but relapse when life gets too difficult.

17Your work history, particularly in the last two years or so is to your credit.  That it despite your drug problems and periods in custody, you have been able to get work and as I have said, that is very much to your credit.

18You have had a long relationship with Casey La Porta.  You have four children who are cared for by your mother.  Ms La Porta is also in custody which means you do not have any contact with her.

19I have been provided with reports of three different psychologists and one psychiatrist who have assessed you for court purposes over the last decade.  All of the reports say much the same thing.  That is, despite your mother's efforts, overall, your upbringing did not give you a good start.  Your anger has been a constant problem, notwithstanding multiple anger management programs.  Your drug problems or consuming and rehabilitative efforts relatively unsuccessful.  Though some periods have been better than others.  You have depression, low self-esteem and a pessimistic view of your prospects.

20It is hoped that after your release from what must be a gaol term, you will again do your best on parole.  But this time, Mr Stone, it must last longer than just successfully negotiating the finite parole period.  You must have an aim to permanently reform as I said in the plea and saw you acknowledge.

21Unless you pull up now, you will go on to waste your life with ever longer stints in prison and your children will become strangers to you.  It was again urged that you be given an opportunity or potential for a long period on parole.  This seems the only rehabilitative tool that I have.

22Of course your rehabilitation, which in your case is a guarded concept, must yield to the need for the denunciation, protection of the community and deterrence to you and to others.  Doing the best I can, having regard to current sentencing practices and all other matters put forward by your counsel and raised by the prosecution.

23Balancing all those matters, I sentence you as follows.  Can you please stand?

24For committing the crime of armed robbery, you are sentenced to four years' imprisonment.  For the related summary offence of committing the indictable crime of armed robbery while on bail, I sentence you to one month imprisonment.  That one month will be concurrent with the sentence that I have just imposed and I order that you serve the minimum of two years before being eligible for parole.

25Had you pleaded not guilty to these offences and been found guilty of them, I would have imposed a sentence of five and a half years with a minimum period of four years.

26I will sign an order relating to compensation that is sought and I note that you consent to it.  Is there anything further required?

27MR ZINGLER:  The pre-sentence detention, Your Honour.

28HIS HONOUR:  I am so sorry.

29MR ZINGLER:  Hundred and twenty-eight days.

30HIS HONOUR:  Mr Stone, I have just overlooked.  You have already served 128 days.  That has been reckoned and I declare that that period of time as part of the sentence that I have just announced.  I will ensure that that declaration is entered into the records of the court, so the prison authorities can be left in no doubt that you have served 128 days.  For what it is worth, I note that most of that time was while this matter was in the Magistrates' Court, notwithstanding that it was going to be in this court.  I will just sign those orders, you can be seated Mr Stone.

31Mr Roper, you will no doubt be discussing if you are involved with Ms La Porta's counsel that she goes to trial, she goes to trial, she gets off then she has done remand time for -done remand time, for no point, sad as that is.

32If she is convicted then she will receive a term of imprisonment and I don't know what her prior convictions are but it should not get to the point where by the time we can get her trial on in this court, that she will have served more time than if she pleads guilty at the door of the court than Mr Stone.

33I will deal with Ms La Porta, that would make sense to me, and I think it would be in the interests of justice that the same judge deal with both cases.

34MR ROPER:  Certainly, I am appearing in the committal on Thursday and I certainly might be hopeful that the matter might resolve in some fashion.

35HIS HONOUR:  I do not know what her prior convictions are, I do not know anything about her.  128 days in custody, he has got two years with his prior convictions, unless I am gravely wrong about that sentence, I do not think I am.  Then Ms La Porta's lawyers have got to start to think pretty hard, I would have thought.

36If there is nothing further, I thank Mr Zingler for his considerable efforts in putting together the plea in written form.  Mr Stone, the final thing is that these courts are not made for you to spend any time with your mother here, prior to you leaving the dock.  You should know that, if you do not, I am telling you.  It is not because I think you would cause any fuss, but plenty of people would, so I have just got to stick to the rule which is, I will remain here, you go with the prison officer and you will see your mother in due course.  You do you follow.  Thank you.  Mr Stone can be taken.

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