DANIEL Mark Hawkins could be released from jail as early as 2023 after a jury acquitted him of murder over the shooting death of Kenneth John Denniss during a dispute over a stolen motorcycle at Maryland in 2018. Hawkins, 32, who was found guilty of manslaughter on the basis of excessive self-defence after an eight-week trial in Sydney Supreme Court, was late last month jailed for a maximum of seven years and six months, with a non-parole period of five years.
Hawkins had claimed he was acting in self-defence after Mr Denniss, 38, threatened him and twice swung at him with a knife, stabbing him in the arm.
The prosecution had said Hawkins was motivated by anger and a desire for "retaliation and retribution" over the stabbing and Mr Denniss's refusal to hand over the motorbike when he returned to the house about half an hour later and shot Mr Denniss with a sawn-off rifle. In a judgement published on Tuesday, Justice Julia Lonergan said she found Hawkins believed he had to shoot Mr Denniss to stop him from pointing what Hawkins thought was a gun at him during a tense confrontation in Beauford Avenue on the afternoon of December 8, 2018.
And Justice Lonergan found that Hawkins diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder impacted his decision making on the day of the shooting and "informed" his belief of what was necessary to defend himself.
And Justice Lonergan also said she accepted Hawkins's evidence that he was trying to "get Mr Denniss in the leg... to stop him" and he thought he was aiming the gun low when he shot.
Those findings were in line with Hawkins's defence case and the jury's verdict.
