A woman who shot dead her partner of 35 years at their farm south of Perth after being assaulted by him, and then told emergency services she "would rather be in jail than with him", has been found guilty of his murder.
Debra Jane Alicia Holmes, 55, was drunk when she got what the family called "the nightshift gun" — a .22 calibre rifle — and shot 56-year-old mine worker and unionist Wayne Chappell in the stomach in his "man cave" on July 15, 2018.
Holmes then made a series of phone calls to triple-0, telling the operator, "I just shot my husband … he's in the shed dying".
In the first lengthy call, Holmes repeatedly described Mr Chappell as being "mean and nasty" to her, and said she "couldn't put up with it anymore".
"I shot him in the stomach. I didn't want to do it, but he was so nasty … he's angry all the time," she said.
"I've had so many years he's been mean to me and I was just like I can't take it anymore."
She told the operator Mr Chappell had assaulted her by dragging her and throwing her onto the bitumen, and said while she loved him she thought, "I'd rather be in jail than with him."
'Now I'm the bad guy'
In another call, Holmes could be heard refusing to hand the gun to police, demanding to speak to the officer in charge of the Collie police station, and at one point inviting the officers inside for a cup of tea.
She also described Mr Chappell as an "arsehole".
"I try to be nice to him every day … he comes home and he's just whinge, whinge and now I'm the bad guy," she said.
Holmes's first Supreme Court trial was in Bunbury in December last year, but it was aborted after three days, leading to a second trial that was heard in Perth over the past week and a half.
State prosecutor Brett Tooker told the jury while it was accepted Mr Chappell had assaulted Holmes, which was wrong, it did not justify her shooting him.
Blood alcohol level over 0.2
Mr Tooker said it was the prosecution's case that alcohol was one of the reasons for the shooting, with the court hearing her blood alcohol level at the time was estimated to be .204 per cent.
He also highlighted to the jury what he called differences in Holmes's account of what happened.
They included her telling the triple-0 operator that she had gone inside the house to get the gun, and then unlocked the door of the "man cave" before shooting Mr Chappell.
"The look on his face was like, 'Oh my God, I've been so horrible for long she's finally got me,'" she told the operator.
However, Mr Tooker said in her video-recorded interview with police the following day, Holmes claimed the gun was already "laying around" in the shed and she did not think it could "actually kill anyone".
"I thought it was like an air rifle. I don't know much about them. It was just there," she said.
'Perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances'
Holmes denied intending to kill or hurt Mr Chappell.
Her lawyer Curt Hofmann described her as "a highly generous, supportive, loving partner, mother and grandmother", and said she maintained she did not deliberately fire the rifle.
The court was told the weapon had been modified which Mr Hofmann said meant it could accidentally discharge, making it "dodgy", "extraordinarily dangerous" and "an accident waiting to happen".
Mr Hofmann also said the shooting happened after Holmes was assaulted, and in the context of their relationship starting to show "cracks" and getting "a bit threadbare".
He said Mr Chappell, a union representative at his work, had just come out of a six-month strike which may have started to wear him out and make him more angry and agitated.
Mr Hofmann said the triple-0 calls painted a picture or a woman who was in an absolute state of disarray and distress, not of someone "with murderous intent".
"This was a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances of alcohol, a dodgy rifle and a violent incident … it does not correlate with an intent to kill," he said.
Family members testified at the trial, saying the couple appeared to have a typical relationship, describing Mr Chappell as generous and a straightshooter, and Holmes as an excellent grandmother.
They also said the rifle involved was called the nightshift gun, because it was kept under the bed as protection for Holmes and her two daughters when Mr Chappell worked nightshift at the mine.
The jury deliberated for about three hours before convicting Holmes of murder.
Holmes, who has been in custody since her arrest, now faces a possible life jail term when she is sentenced in November.
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