R v Howlett [2021] NSWSC 959

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Howlett [2021] NSWSC 959 Hearing dates: 30 July 2021 Decision date: 30 July 2021 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Criminal Before: R A Hulme J Decision: Imprisonment for 2 years 1 month with a non-parole period of 1 year 3 months Catchwords: SENTENCING – accessory after the fact to murder – principal stabbed victim to death – assistance provided to principal over 12 days following murder – offender and principal in intimate relationship – objective severity below middle of the range – guilty plea – discount for future assistance – disadvantageous upbringing – guarded prospects of rehabilitation – special circumstances – summary of similar cases – custodial sentence Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), s 349(1) Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW), ss 3A, 12, 44 Cases Cited: Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571; [2013] HCA 37 R v Ah Keni [2020] NSWSC 1848 R v Gavel (2014) 239 A Crim R 469; [2014] NSWCCA 56 R v Johnson [2014] NSWSC 1254 R v Stanford, Marcus [2016] NSWSC 1174 Category: Sentence Parties: Regina Yolanda Donna Howlett Representation: Counsel: Mr B Costello (Crown) Mr T D Anderson (Offender)

Solicitors: Solicitor for Public Prosecutions Coast Law File Number(s): 2020/849

Judgment 1. HIS HONOUR: Ms Yolanda Howlett is to be sentenced for an offence of being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Mr Larry White at North Gosford, the murder having occurred on 20 December 2019. 2. Section 349(1) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) applies and the maximum penalty is imprisonment for 25 years. 3. Ms Howlett pleaded guilty in the Local Court on 19 March 2021 and was committed to this Court for sentence. She has maintained her plea of guilty today when it was necessary to have her arraigned upon an indictment because of some defect in the relevant Court Attendance Notice. 4. There is a statement of agreed facts signed by Ms Howlett. Regrettably, it is more a summary of the evidence available to the Crown in relation to both her and the principal offender than a statement of facts. It is also very long. I have derived the following from it. 5. The deceased, Mr Larry White, was a 67-year old man who lived in a two-bedroom home unit in Gosford. He sold heroin. 6. Ms Howlett, aged 34, was in a relationship with Scott Weaver, aged 38. They both were drug users. She had been living in the spare bedroom of Mr White's home for about a year. Mr Weaver lived elsewhere but joined her there in early November 2019. There were indications of domestic violence perpetrated by Mr Weaver in the ensuing weeks. Mr Weaver was accusing Ms Howlett of infidelity during his absence prior to early November. 7. On 20 December 2019 at about 9.00am Mr Weaver took up a knife and said he should "get rid of her" because she had been cheating on him. He listed a number of people she had been unfaithful with, including Mr White. He stabbed her in the stomach. He then asked her to go and ask Mr White for some heroin. 8. Ms Howlett came out of the bedroom and said to Mr White, "Please, Larry, can you help me? Scott is going to stab me a hundred times more if you don't help me. He thinks I've been sleeping around again." She lifted her shirt and showed Mr White the stab injury. He said she needed to go to a hospital. She did not go to a hospital. The agreed facts do not say why. 9. Sometime later in the spare bedroom, Mr Weaver continued his accusations of Ms Howlett being unfaithful with Mr White. He said a number of times to her that he was going to confront Mr White. He left the spare bedroom with the knife he had used earlier to stab her. She heard him say to Mr White, "You want to fuck my missus, do ya?" She heard Mr White say that he had never touched her and that he had always tried to look after her. Mr Weaver then stabbed Mr White a number of times including to the chest, left thigh and right wrist. 10. Ms Howlett walked out of the spare bedroom and saw Mr Weaver holding the knife. Mr White looked at her and said, "I've been stabbed." She asked, "Where?", and he replied, "Everywhere. Call an ambulance", before collapsing to the floor. She went to ring an ambulance, but Mr Weaver would not let her. She attempted provide first aid while Mr Weaver watched. 11. The knife wounds were fatal. Ms Howlett covered Mr White with a blanket. Mr Weaver said that he should "finish her" because she was the only witness. He also said, "Look what you've made me do. I told you I'd knock someone for you." He told her she was not allowed to leave his side. 12. Mr Weaver told Ms Howlett to have a shower which she did. He threw the knife used to stab Mr White into the shower with her. He then put it into a bucket of bleach. He attempted to clean the unit with bleach to get rid of evidence, saying to Ms Howlett, "Look what you made me do." 13. The agreed facts refer to people trying to contact Mr White by phone or by coming to the unit throughout the day, but there was no answer on the phone or at the door. 14. In the early afternoon, Ms Howlett accompanied Mr Weaver on a journey to Erina to acquire drugs. 15. A witness came to the unit at about 2pm. He observed Ms Howlett and Mr Weaver to be drug affected. He said that Ms Howlett appeared agitated and visibly intimidated by and frightened of Mr Weaver. Another witness who came to see Mr White was told by Mr Weaver that Mr White had gone to Sydney. 16. At about 5.30pm a witness came and knocked on the door of Mr White's unit. Ms Howlett partially opened the door and came out. She told the witness that Mr White was not home. At this stage, of course, Mr White was lying dead on the floor just inside the front door. 17. Ms Howlett and Mr Weaver obtained a lift to Sydney, apparently to purchase drugs. They stopped along the way at a shopping centre where Ms Howlett bought some band-aids for the stab wound to her abdomen. The driver observed that Ms Howlett and Mr Weaver were arguing throughout the journey to and from Sydney. 18. Meanwhile people were continuing to try and contact or visit Mr White. Ultimately, at about 11pm, a person broke into the unit and found his body on the floor, covered by a blanket. Police and ambulance were contacted and were soon in attendance. 19. The cause of death was identified to be multiple stab wounds in the locations previously mentioned. 20. Ms Howlett and Mr Weaver heard about the discovery of Mr White's death on their journey back to the Central Coast. Mr Weaver received a phone call during which he said, "What, Larry's dead?" He subsequently told Ms Howlett, "They are accusing me of doing it." They were dropped off at Terrigal and from there made their way to the homes of various acquaintances, realising that they could not go back to Mr White's unit. 21. The following day, one of the acquaintances heard Ms Howlett say, "Babe, I am not going to...lose you. I...love you, I am with you. I love you, you know that. Understand I am with you." 22. On 23 December 2019, Ms Howlett challenged one of the acquaintances, a Ms Dengelo, as to whether she had told anyone about her and Mr Weaver, and whether Ms Dengelo had "dogged on me". Ms Dengelo replied, "I told them everything." Ms Howlett responded, "So you dogged on me." Another person heard Ms Howlett tell Mr Weaver that Ms Dengelo had "dogged them". Ms Howlett subsequently recalled having told Mr Weaver, "I shouldn't have told her, I've put your life at risk." She screamed at Ms Dengelo, "I can't believe you did this, I looked after you in gaol." 23. On 24 December 2019, Ms Howlett and Mr Weaver arranged to purchase a car in a false name for $800. They returned in the car to the home of the person they were then staying with, covered the car in a tarp and began packing their things. 24. At about 2am on 25 December 2019, Ms Howlett, Mr Weaver and two others went to the unit complex where Mr White had lived. Ms Howlett and Mr Weaver were arguing about where to park and what to do. Mr Weaver was observed to be very aggressive. He said to Ms Howlett, "You're the reason I'm in this shit in the first place." The statement of agreed facts is unclear about what happened then. 25. In the early morning of 28 December 2019, Ms Howlett drove Mr Weaver to Mr White's unit complex. She remained in the car while he went to Mr White's garage where he was apprehended by police as he removed items to take away. He told police, "I know it looks bad because that guy got murdered and I used to live there, but I am just getting my shit." 26. Mr Weaver later told police in a recorded interview that he had fought with Ms Howlett about her rumoured infidelity but claimed he had trusted her when she denied sleeping with Mr White. He denied stabbing her in the stomach and claimed she was picking at her stomach due to being on ice. After giving various accounts, Mr Weaver ultimately told police he and Ms Howlett had found Mr White's body when they attended the unit. They attempted CPR unsuccessfully and left. 27. Mr Weaver was refused bail and remanded in custody. 28. Ms Howlett was arrested on 1 January 2020. Police found a handwritten letter in her possession addressed to Mr Weaver at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater. It contained a version of what they had done which appeared to have been along the lines of the version eventually given by Mr Weaver to the police a few days before. 29. Ms Howlett exercised her right to silence. She agreed to show police a scab on her stomach, claiming it was an injury from a barbed wire fence. 30. The following morning Ms Howlett said she wished to participate in an interview. Asked why, she explained, "I just want to tell the truth about what happened to Larry ... I'm not going to gaol for something I didn't do." She then gave an account which included a denial of fighting with Mr Weaver, a denial that he had stabbed her in the stomach and a denial of any animosity between Mr Weaver and Mr White. 31. She gave a version of events which was similar to the version provided to police by Mr Weaver. She said they had found Mr White dead in the unit when they had returned home. They attempted CPR unsuccessfully and then left. She said she did not report Mr White's death as she was really scared and was just listening to Mr Weaver's instructions. 32. Ms Howlett was remanded in custody. In about early March 2020, she alerted police to letters she had received from Mr Weaver. They are referred to in some detail in the agreed facts. In short, they are consistent with Mr Weaver endeavouring to coerce her into maintaining a version that would assist him in denying responsibility for the death of Mr White; for example, "You need to be my soldier stick staunch all the way we will beat this we are innocent not guilty". 33. On 2 June 2020, Ms Howlett voluntarily participated in a further police interview. She provided an account which the prosecution accepts is truthful as to Mr Weaver having stabbed and killed Mr White. It is a version she has undertaken to give in evidence against Mr Weaver. 34. The interview includes Ms Howlett's explanation for her conduct in the aftermath of the murder of Mr White. She describes the pressure and threats she was subjected to by Mr Weaver and how fearful she was as a result. When she was first arrested, she was "just trying to do what Scott asked [her] to do". She said it was hard because she had been stabbed by someone she loved; someone she considered to be her best friend and who had always protected her until that point. 35. The agreed facts conclude by stating that the Crown accepts "that, at least while Weaver and the offender were together, the offender was operating under a degree of duress". 36. In written submissions, the Crown summarised the activities of Ms Howlett that made her liable as an accessory after the fact to murder as follows. "The offender's assistance included: ● Supporting the principal in "laying a false trail" by misleading people as to the deceased's movements and whereabouts; ● providing assistance to the principal to evade police; ● confronting a person who knew some details of what had occurred about her disclosure of the details; ● assisting the offender to return to the vicinity of the crime scene to retrieve items; ● voluntarily requesting a police interview (the first interview), so that she could provide a false account to the police that had been agreed by the offender and the principal. In relation to the first interview, this occurred at a time after the principal had been arrested and was in custody and it occurred at the offender's request after the police had decided not to pursue an interview after she had declined to participate in one."