Martial arts move fatal
AN ACCUSED murderer who allegedly choked his roommate to death in a Townsville city carpark confessed to police he “killed him in cold blood”.
Mark Anthony Smith is charged with the murder of Bradley Lester, 21, whose body was found at the Sturt St Cutting about 7.30pm on April 16, 2014.
Smith guilty. has pleaded not
The court heard the pair were roommates at the Ozcare Townsville hostel and were known to have smoked cannabis together.
In day two of the trial, the jury was shown a recorded police interview, where Smith detailed the events of what is alleged to have happened in the carpark.
“We had an argument, he tried to swing at me, I ducked and weaved and put him in a sleeper hold, I killed him,” he told police in the interview.
Smith also told detectives a different version of events during the interview, telling them another man was present. He later changed his story.
In the interview with police, Smith told detectives he had a background in martial arts.
The jury was also shown vision of Smith and detectives walking through what had happened at the carpark early on the morning of April 17, 2014.
It’s here he told detectives he was showing Lester martial THE chilly mornings are expected to linger on after temperatures dipped to 4C in some parts of the Townsville region yesterday.
The weather station at Woolshed, southwest of Townsville, recorded the frosty figure.
The Townsville Airport, which is near the coast, got down to 8C, while some inland suburbs went arts moves “from the front” and then he showed him one “from behind” and didn’t let go.
“I killed him,” he said. “He went unconscious, he hit the ground, I then strangled him with my good hand. I killed him in cold blood.”
In the video, Smith told detectives he grabbed him by the throat and “it took me 20 minutes until he stopped twitching”.
He told detectives talked too much. Lester
In a letter by Smith to detectives on May 1, 2014, read to the jury, he claimed he could not recall what was said in an interview with police as he was under the influence of drugs and had not had medicine for a health condition for some time.
During cross-examination, defence barrister Frank Richards asked Detective Senior Constable Tony Hogan whether he thought Smith was of impaired capacity. He replied, “I did not”. even lower. More cold mornings are in store until the weekend, when temperatures are expected to rise back up to the July low average of 14C
“It’s probably going to get below 10C for the next two days,” said Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster David Crock.
“Then we should see a gradual warming and by
The jury also heard from Deborah Anne Santo, who was a support worker at a Bohle diversionary centre.
She was working on April 16, 2014, when Smith, who was a client of hers, came to the centre for a feed, but appeared down.
“I just asked him is he OK? He said ‘ no I’m not OK I just strangled someone … I went back in an hour and he was blue’,” she said.
The trial continues before Justice David North. the weekend it should get back up to that 14C figure.
“There’s a big, cool, dry air mass over Queensland and it’s being driven up by a high pressure system over South Australia. There’s a lot of dry air and clear skies, which has made it a bit chilly.”
Townsville got down to 7.5C earlier this week, which was colder than Hobart and Melbourne.