A 38-year-old Hobart man who admitted to shooting a semi-automatic rifle through the door of a city nightclub earlier this year was wearing "red war paint" on his face when he caught a taxi to the scene of the crime, his lawyer has told a court.
Wayne William Howlett was arrested a few days after the shooting at Pablo's Cocktails and Dreams bar in June.
This morning Howlett pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to recklessly discharging a firearm and property damage.
His lawyer Greg Richardson asked for a drug treatment assessment order.
Mr Richardson told the court "I don't think there would be much doubt" that illicit drugs had been a major contributor to the crime.
"Someone who orders a taxi to their own home, from their own phone, and gets in with red war paint painted across his face to go to the scene of the crime … is clearly not functioning in a normal way."
Justice David Porter adjourned the case until February without ordering the report.
There were about 20 patrons inside the club when bullets went through the steel door and into the walls of the venue.
Other people in the club dropped to the floor during the shooting, with no patrons hurt
The incident occurred less than a block away from where one of the major Dark Mofo winter festival events was being staged, with people reporting they had believed the gunshots to be associated with that event.
Four days after the incident, police swooped on Howlett as he waited in his car for a female companion to finish shopping at Officeworks, in Hobart's CBD.
