IT WAS LIKE HAMMERING A NAIL
Accused killer told me how he did it, witness tells trial.
ACCUSED murderer Nick Munn made admissions to killing Jason Fry while talking to a woman he had just met, a witness claims.
Mikayla Butler yesterday told the Supreme Court that she smoked bongs with Mr Munn at a home in Lara during April 2018, shortly after Mr Fry’s body was found inside a dumped station wagon at North Shore.
She said Mr Munn was acting “like it was just another event” when he allegedly provided details of how he killed Mr Fry about a week earlier.
Ms Butler said the 41-yearold told her that he used a hammer to hit Mr Fry in the head from behind while the alleged victim was at home on a “laptop or something”.
“He said that Jason was in his room doing something, and Nick was sitting down deciding whether or not to hurt him,” she told the jury.
“And then he said he looked back and forth at the hammer and him, and then struck him.”
She said the accused murderer revealed he had hit Mr Fry more than once, while he recounted his actions through gestures that were similar to “hammering a nail”.
Mr Munn also allegedly told her that he wrapped up Mr Fry’s body and placed it in the boot of a car. “He said that he was heavy,” Ms Butler said.
She told the court she could not remember if Mr Munn had said why he attacked Mr Fry, who was 41 years old at the time of his death.
Mr Munn was arrested at the Lara property on April 17, 2018, eight days after he allegedly murdered Mr Fry. While Mr Munn has admitted killing Mr Fry with a hammer, he has pleaded not guilty to murder on the basis of self-defence.
Giving her evidence from a remote witness room, Ms Butler said she had only known Mr Munn through Facebook conversations up until the day before his arrest, when they met in person for the first time.
Under cross-examination from Mr Munn’s defence barrister, she said that she did not tell police about the conversation with the accused murderer until eight months later.
Senior toxicologist Maria Pricone also gave evidence at the trial, telling jurors that blood samples taken from Mr Fry’s body showed the presence of methamphetamine.
While Ms Pricone did not know how the drug might have affected Mr Fry, she said methamphetamine use could alter a person’s rationality and impulsivity, while it could also lead to paranoia.
The trial will continue today.