Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

I don't know, but this seems way too common these days . . .

TWO men who escaped responsibility for killing a man they bashed unconscious and then set alight were both jailed today for three years and six months.

Justice Lex Lasry told Wayne Arthur, 51, and Darryl McHarg, 32, he would sentence them for the assault on Shaun Patrick Moloney but not for causing his death. The decision not to charge the men with murder or manslaughter outraged the victim's family and victim supporters.

Steve Medcraft of People Against Lenient Sentencing questioned why the Office of Public Prosecutions did not press a murder or manslaughter case. "How can you bash someone unconscious and then set their body on fire and only be charged with causing injury?'' Mr Medcraft said. "They caused this man's death. It is a clear case of murder, or at least manslaughter, and it is this kind of case that makes ordinary people think the justice system is a joke.''

In his Supreme Court sentence the judge said the pair attacked Mr Moloney, who was found to have a blood alcohol reading of .51, in a Glenroy boarding house, punching him a number of times to the head and body.

Justice Lasry said the victim's high blood alcohol count meant he would not have been able to defend himself.

McHarg told police that when he and Arthur placed Mr Moloney in the back of his station wagon they thought he was dead. The body was driven to a paddock at Strathmore and set light.

"The basis on which you have both pleaded guilty to the offence of intentionally causing serious injury is that you will be sentenced for what occurred during the course of the assault at the boarding house,'' said Justice Lasry.

"Not for any subsequent conduct or in any respect on the basis that either or both of you caused the death of Mr Moloney.''

Arthur and McHarg, pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally causing serious injury to Mr Moloney, 46, in the early hours of March 8, 2009.

Justice Lasry said all three lived in the boarding house and McHarg believed Mr Moloney had abused a child, although there was no evidence to support this belief.

He said McHarg had a very troubled background of abuse, drug and alcohol addiction and a number of prior convictions while Arthur lived an isolated and socially marginalised life.

The judge said he regarded the offending as serious and set maximum terms of six years and six months.

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Pair jailed for assaulting a man who died, but escape charges over his death | Herald Sun (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/pair-jailed-for-assaulting-a-man-who-died-but-escape-charges-over-his-death/story-e6frf7kx-1225998695501)

In his Supreme Court sentence the judge said the pair attacked Mr Moloney, who was found to have a blood alcohol reading of .51, in a Glenroy boarding house, punching him a number of times to the head and body.

Justice Lasry said the victim's high blood alcohol count meant he would not have been able to defend himself.


Just this alone makes it more of a murder case than an assault / battery case!!

"Hey Judge, we didn't kill him intentionally. I mean I know he was about 37 sheets to the wind and probably didn't even know what we were doing when we beat his head in and then set him on fire, but he must not have minded 'cause he didn't ever try to defend himself or tell us to stop!"

What is this world coming to!?!?!?

I saw they pleaded guilty. Does that mean it was a plea bargain? Maybe there wasn't enough evidence to try them for murder?

Steve Medcraft of People Against Lenient Sentencing questioned why the Office of Public Prosecutions did not press a murder or manslaughter case. "How can you bash someone unconscious and then set their body on fire and only be charged with causing injury?'' Mr Medcraft said. "They caused this man's death. It is a clear case of murder, or at least manslaughter, and it is this kind of case that makes ordinary people think the justice system is a joke.''


Pair jailed for assaulting a man who died, but escape charges over his death | Herald Sun (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/pair-jailed-for-assaulting-a-man-who-died-but-escape-charges-over-his-death/story-e6frf7kx-1225998695501)


I saw they pleaded guilty. Does that mean it was a plea bargain? Maybe there wasn't enough evidence to try them for murder?

It sounds like the outrage is directed at the prosecutor for not pressing a murder case. It wasn't clear why to me.

Also the article quotes the judge as if some things were exculpatory but I would have thought them to be aggravating. For example, it seems the judge is saying the 0.51 BAC left the victim unable to defend himself. He seemed to be implying that his inabiliity to defend himself was partially responsible for his death. My own sense of justice is that beating people to death that can't defend themselves would aggravate the murder charge, not lessen it. Is that not correct? It seems reasonable to assume that beating a defenseless man about the head could result in his death, no?

What would the penalty be for repeat felon convicted of aggravated assault causing permanent bodily injury be in the U.S. (assuming a U.S. prosecutor would accept the agg assault plea)?

It sounds like the outrage is directed at the prosecutor for not pressing a murder case. It wasn't clear why to me.

What we don't know, Mike is what kind of evidence they had prior to the plea. The prosecutor might be at fault or it might be that there was too big a risk that they would have been acquitted in a trial and walked. If that happened, they could have never been prosecuted again.

As a rule, prosecutors aren't stupid and we know very little about this case from the original post.

Even if it was a plea bargin only 3 years???? that is insane.....

What we don't know, Mike is what kind of evidence they had prior to the plea. The prosecutor might be at fault or it might be that there was too big a risk that they would have been acquitted in a trial and walked. If that happened, they could have never been prosecuted again.

As a rule, prosecutors aren't stupid and we know very little about this case from the original post.

Yeah, I don't think I was too clear. Usually prosecutors are law and order guys by definition. I meant that the person they quoted in the article was pointing the finger at the prosecutor's office (not the judge). It wasn't clear in the article why the prosecutor didn't go for manslaughter. They didn't even give the medical examiners cause of death (fire? alcochol? trauma?).

Here's a hypothetical question: what if they beat him unconscious, thought he was dead and then decided to burn the body? They confess to beating him at arrest thinking that it killed him and then confess to disposing the body. Medical Examiner report comes back a few weeks later and says beating didn't kill him, it was the fire. If in fact the fire killed him, what is their mental state when they lit him on fire thinking they were disposing of a corpse? Would it be negligence or premeditated? I could see a defense attorney working OT trying to separate those two acts as two separate crimes with the death being accidental. I would hope a judge or jury wouldn't buy it. Or am I just fantasizing a scenario that could never happen?

I've had a lot of pissing matches with DA's over the years, but I never worked under one who would kiss off a murder conviction for much of a plea bargain unless they absolutely had to.

The only thing I can think of is that he had some sort of medical condition that killed him immediately rather than the beating and the burning. Perhaps the beating and the later burning of the body didn't actually cause that much injury. That's just a wild guess though. You would need the autopsy report to really know.

Pathetic.

I locked a guy up once who had 108 court appearances as a juvenile ranging from armed robbery, stealing cars, brekaing out of juvenile jail, drugs, assaults....not one conviction based on that he was under 18 years and the courts were not satisfied that he understood what he did was wrong!! 108 TIMES!!!

He knew to run from Police, and get in pursuits to avoid capture, and fight police and to escape from jail....More judges need to be victims of crime.

Our homicide squad are pretty top notch and I doubt they would've brought the case to court if they didn't feel they had the evidence.

But even if it was plea, the sentence is so wrong.

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Our homicide squad are pretty top notch and I doubt they would've brought the case to court if they didn't feel they had the evidence.

But even if it was plea, the sentence is so wrong.

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It's not the homicide squad's fault. If the evidence isn't there, it isn't there. I still wonder if the injuries they inflicted, even the burning was determined not enough to cause death and he died from other causes?