AN ABATTOIR worker who butchered a colleague inside a unit at Scone, stabbing him 49 times in a "frenzied" attack has been found not guilty of murder, with a jury finding he was acting in response to "extreme provocation" after waking to the victim sexually assaulting him.
Jamie Cust, now 22, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Filipino national Jesus Bebita, 41, his "mentor" at JBS Meatworks, and had faced a three-day trial in Newcastle Supreme Court.
Cust did not deny inflicting the wounds, but the sole issue during the trial was whether he was operating under "extreme provocation", a partial defence that, if not eliminated beyond reasonable doubt by the prosecution, would reduce Cust's criminal liability from murder to manslaughter.
The test for extreme provocation is whether the act that killed Mr Bebita was in response to Mr Bebita's conduct, whether what Mr Bebita had done constituted a serious indictable offence, whether it was that conduct that caused Cust to "lose self-control" and, crucially, whether the conduct of Mr Bebita would have caused an "ordinary person" to lose control to the extent where they would intend to kill or cause really serious injury.
Mr Queenan told the jury that even if they believed Cust's version about waking up to a sexual assault they would not accept that what had occurred inside the unit would have caused an "ordinary person" to lose control.
"You might think the appropriate response is to say "I'm not interested", to push him off the bed," Mr Queenan said. "It wouldn't be to stab him 49 times."
Meanwhile, Mr Rosser said something "dramatic" must have occurred for Mr Cust to brutally attack Mr Bebita and Mr Cust's version and independent scientific evidence fit that description.
And on Monday, after deliberating for four hours, the jury agreed, returning to court and finding Cust not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.
The verdict must mean the jury accepted Cust's claims about waking up to a sexual assault and then determined that an "ordinary person" who found themselves in his situation would have lost control to the extent that they would have intended to kill or really seriously injure Mr Bebita.
But by 4.14am the next morning, when Cust called his step-father to pick him up, Mr Bebita had been stabbed 49 times, including 12 wounds to his back and a large laceration from his right ear to his left chest.
Mr Bebita's body was found in a pool of blood in the bathroom of his unit, Mr Queenan told a jury during his opening address last week.
Cust was picked up from Scone by his step-father and on the drive back to Muswellbrook told him: "I stabbed him because he tried to rape me."
His step-father encouraged him to go to the police and Cust repeatedly replied: "I can't. I don't want to go to jail."
"I stabbed him because he tried to rape me," Cust repeated. "I think he is dead. "I woke up, my pants were down and he was rubbing his d--- on me."
Cust had a shower and put his bloodstained clothes into a plastic bag before he went to Muswellbrook police station and told the officer at the counter: "I killed someone who tried to rape me."
Police went to the unit in Parker Street and found Mr Bebita's body.
They also discovered that one of the bloodstained bedrooms had been set on fire.
Mr Queenan said that later that night, while having a cigarette and speaking to a police officer, Cust asked the officer "Do you think I am a bad person?" The police officer replied: "You have murdered someone mate, it doesn't get any worse."
Cust then made a stabbing motion with his hand and said: "I just stabbed him and it took ages for him to die."
Before his arrest, Cust wrote a note that was found in his bag that was essentially a list of of things to do before running away.
It read: "watch, cleanest blending in clothes and travel to northern point of Australia".
Cust will be sentenced in October.
