DPP v Karaca & Price
[2007] VSC 190
•8 June 2007
| IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | Not Restricted |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
No. 1406 of 2007
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| ROBERT KARACA & JARRED ROYCE PRICE |
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JUDGE: | Teague J | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 4 June 2007 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 8 June 2007 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Karaca & Price | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2007] VSC 190 | |
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Criminal Law – Sentencing – Attempted murder – Pressure exerted by victim on younger men to assist victim with his planned suicide – Many mitigating circumstances – 3 years imprisonment wholly suspended for 3 years.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | Ms A. Cannon | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused Karaca | Mr P. Dunn QC | Clarebrough Pica |
| For the Accused Price | Ms H. Spowart | Victoria Legal Aid |
HIS HONOUR:
Robert Karaca and Jarred Price, you have each pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder. I am about to impose on each of you a sentence of imprisonment for three years, wholly suspended for three years. I need to explain to you my reasons for doing so. I must then be satisfied that you understand the implications of the suspension.
The victim of the attempted murder on 4 March 2005 was Bruce Levin. What makes this attempted murder very different from almost all of the many others that I have considered in the past is that your victim was a man towards whom you felt no ill-will at all. What you did to him was as a favour to him, at his request. Indeed, it was at his insistence.
The two of you had been friends of each other for several years, having met at school. Bruce Levin was a man some twelve years older than both of you. He came to know you, Robert Karaca, as a friend, through your both temporarily sharing accommodation. That was some months before March 2005. That friendship led, in time, to his inviting the two of you to share accommodation to which he gained access through his family. The three of you thus came to be sharing a house in Caulfield as at the start of March 2005. To a degree, Bruce Levin was acting as a form of older brother to you both. There were, however, other considerations. One was that the three of you had a mutual interest in smoking marijuana.
Bruce Levin was a much troubled man. He was subject to bouts of depression. There were times when he wanted to commit suicide. He made that known particularly to you, Robert Karaca. On a prior failed attempt at suicide, he had caused his parents much grief. That attempt, made by trying to gas himself with car exhaust fumes, left him with short term memory problems. In early 2005, you had urged him to seek counselling and to take medication. His response was to indicate that he had tried both options, but they did not assist him.
On 4 March 2005, the two of you were having a social drink at home when Bruce Levin came home from work. Once again, he told you that he wanted to commit suicide. He gave reasons why he could not be talked out of it. Then and later, he gave details of his preferences as to the manner of the suicide. There were a variety of options. Some, he said, were to be preferred, partly for religious reasons, and partly out of concern for his parents. He did not want to be cut, or disfigured, nor to suffer prolonged pain. He wanted it to appear that he had been kidnapped. He spoke of taking an overdose of sleeping tablets, of gassing himself, and of being found at the bottom of a cliff. He said that he wanted to die in the Dandenongs. He asked you, Robert Karaca, to go with him. He said that that if he was in pain, or if the tablets did not work, he should be hit over the back of the head with a particular steel bar that he kept in the car.
After that pressure from Bruce Levin, you Robert Karaca agreed to do as Bruce Levin had asked you. You then spoke to Jarred Price. You persuaded him to go too, primarily to drive you home after the suicide had been carried out.
Bruce Levin telephoned his parents. He misled them, telling them that he was going on a blind date. The three of you left the Caulfield house at about 3 p.m. on Friday 4 March 2005. Bruce Levin was driving his car, and the two of you were passengers in it. He drove to a bank. There, he transferred money from a credit account into an account from which he could withdraw cash. He then handed over to you, Robert Karaca, over $5000 in an envelope containing $50 notes. He told you that he wanted the two of you to have the money as he would have no use for it. He went to a nearby supermarket. You went to a nearby tobacconist. There, you bought cigars and a carton of cigarettes. Further stops were made. At each of two chemists, Bruce Levin bought packets of twenty or more non-prescription sleeping tablets. There was a stop to pay rent and a stop to redeem, by paying $50, a ring owned by you, Jarred Price, which had been pawned for $25 earlier that day. Bruce Levin then drove you to the Chadstone Shopping Centre. There, he bought a vacuum hose and duct tape. There, the two of you each bought a mobile phone. The phones were paid for with Bruce Levin’s money. That purchase can only have had the effect of making stronger your commitment to assisting him in his planned suicide.
Bruce Levin then drove the car up into the Dandenongs. He looked without success, for a suitable cliff to fall down. He eventually drove to Macclesfield Road in Macclesfield, a relatively secluded location. He pulled off the road. He swallowed the two packets of sleeping tablets. To pass the time, some bongs of marijuana were smoked. After a while, Bruce Levin lay down on the grass a few metres from the car. A few minutes later, he was still fidgeting. The two of you went for a walk. When you returned to Bruce Levin, he appeared to be asleep, but not dead. You, Robert Karaca, were then faced with the predicament of having made the commitment to Bruce Levin that you would hit him with his steel bar, in such a situation as this. You said to Jarred Price that you could not do so. That shifted the predicament to you, Jarred Price. Regrettably, you agreed to do what Robert Karaca could not bring himself to do. You hit Bruce Levin. That strike brought a reaction, but Bruce Levin still lay on the ground. You, Robert Karaca, then told Jarred Price to hit Bruce Levin again, and a second blow was struck. After that blow, the two of you got into the car and drove off, heading back to Melbourne.
Bruce Levin was stunned but he heard the car drive off. He was picked up later that night on Macclesfield Road by police. He was taken to a hospital. He claimed not to remember what had happened to him. You, Robert Karaca had qualms of conscience when you returned to Melbourne. You then went to the police, without knowing what had happened to Bruce Levin. All three of you later told the police an account of events that differed only in matters of detail. The high level of your co-operation with the police meant that the police opted to treat the matter relatively lightly. You were only proceeded against by way of summons issued in early 2006. You indicated at an early stage a preparedness to plead guilty, although there were negotiations as to what charge was to be pleaded to.
A victim impact statement prepared by Bruce Levin has been placed before me. There are some differences in approach evident in that statement compared with what was evident in both the statement he made to the police and his answers to questions at the committal hearing. He earlier made it very clear that his plans for suicide were his alone. You were merely the unwilling tools that he was using to try to achieve his then purpose. I am satisfied that he manipulated you to make the commitment to assist him. I am not disposed to prefer his recent suggestion that you took advantage of his vulnerability.
I turn to the background of each of you. You have a great deal in common. For a start, there are the substantial mitigating factors of your youth, the absence of prior convictions, your pleas of guilty and your considerable remorse. Both of you were born in November 1986. You are each now 20, and were 18 in March 2005. Both of you are of average intelligence and have had an upbringing disturbed by parental separation. Both of you were substantially raised your mother. Both of you in your teens chose to become users of drugs, particularly marijuana. Both of you were not successful, at least initially, in stopping that use after the events of March 2005. That is a matter of concern, and a factor in my expressing some concern as to your prospects of rehabilitation, despite many other positive indicators. Neither of you has any major mental or physical health problem. The reports from psychologists tendered on the plea as to each of you point to some moderately concerning problems, such as to indicate the desirability of more counselling in the future.
You, Robert Karaca, have remained in Victoria, have worked consistently and have undergone extensive counselling. You, Jarred Price, initially moved to Queensland. You have now returned to Melbourne and taken up work here. Both of you appear to have very substantially changed your lifestyle, and to have developed relative stability. That was brought home by the evidence and references led upon the hearing of the plea. Mr Dunn and Ms Spowart, who then appeared for you, urged me to impose a suspended sentence, and pointed to the multiple mitigating factors. Ms Cannon conceded that a suspended sentence was within the range and explained her reasoning for that concession. All counsel referred to the uniqueness of the circumstances leading to you acting as you did. While my own researches have led me to five sentences that I have found helpful, they were partly of note for bringing home the extraordinary nature of the instant circumstances. [1]
[1] Hollinrake (Coldrey J, unreported, 29 June 1992), Marden [2000] VSC 558, Hood [2002] VSC 123, Maxwell [2003] VSC 278 and Sutton [2007] NSWSC 295. The first four involved husbands planning to assist in the earlier deaths of terminally ill wives. In Hollinrake, the plan did not succeed and the plea was thus to attempted murder. In Sutton, a grossly disabled child was the victim. In Hood and Maxwell the plea was to aid or abet suicide. In Marden and Sutton the plea was to manslaughter. Over the five cases, the most severe penalty imposed was a suspended sentence of 2 years.
I have signed the orders for the destruction of certain items and for the taking of body samples, there being good reason for, and no opposition to, my doing so.
As indicated when I commenced these reasons, I am proposing to impose, as to each of you, a sentence of imprisonment of three years, wholly suspended for three years. You must understand that, during that time, you must not commit another offence punishable by imprisonment. If you do so, you may be required to serve some or all of the suspended sentence. Even the occasional smoking of marijuana would place you at peril. Do you understand the full implications of a suspended sentence?
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