Teen found not guilty of murder over street stabbing
Rex Martinich |
A teenager has been acquitted of murder and manslaughter after being accused of taking part in a street brawl that resulted in a young man being fatally stabbed.
The Brisbane Supreme Court jury returned its verdict on Wednesday following more than 13 hours of deliberation.
The jury of six men and six women found the teen not guilty of murder and not guilty of the alternative charge of manslaughter.
The teen’s family held their head in their hands as the jury speaker delivered the verdicts.
The teen sat in the dock and looked upwards, blinking back tears.
Just over three years after the man’s death, the teen last week pleaded not guilty to murder by aiding or encouraging an older boy at the start of the trial.
The teen, who cannot be named because he was aged 15 at the time, was accused of being part of a confrontation between two groups in a street in the Logan suburb of Underwood, south of Brisbane, at 1am on February 24, 2023.
Minutes later, Aiden Rhys Bower-Miles, 20, lay dying in a nearby paddock with a deep stab wound.
The teen was accused of handing a kitchen knife to an older boy in the context of two groups of people arguing and fighting, crown prosecutor, Toby Corsbie told the jury last week.
The teen was also accused of acting in concert with the older boy to carry out the stabbing, Mr Corsbie said.
The teen who stabbed Mr Bower-Miles was not on trial, the jury was told.
A boy aged 16 at the time was accused of stabbing Mr Bower-Miles with intent to kill or cause him grievous bodily harm.
A pre-trial hearing was previously told the 16-year-old had died before facing trial.
Justice Elizabeth Wilson earlier told the jury they would have to determine if the 16-year-old had committed murder or manslaughter
They would then decide whether the then-15-year-old was also responsible via allegedly giving him the knife or encouraging him to fight knowing he was armed.
Mr Corsbie said multiple witnesses saw the teen defendant hand a knife or metal object to the older boy before Mr Bower-Miles was stabbed.
An autopsy revealed five sharp-force injuries to Mr Bower-Miles’s left arm consistent with defensive wounds inflicted by a sharp object, the jury heard.
The fatal wound was an 11cm-deep cut to his collarbone area that severed his subclavian artery and penetrated his lung before terminating at the spine.
Defence barrister Amelia Anderson had asked the jury to keep in mind how young her client was at the time and how quickly the incident unfolded.
On Wednesday the teen said “yep” when Justice Wilson told him he had been found not guilty and was free to leave the court.
The teen was embraced by his tearful family members in the court building’s lobby.
AAP