Jail for gunshot couple
A COUPLE shared one last hug in court before being put behind bars for the roles they played in a horrific home invasion where a man was shot at in suburban Townsville.
Nakeeta Camel Kissier, 31, and Shaun Dudley Sielaff, 33, appeared in custody at Townsville District Court on Friday to get sentenced for the roles they played in a home invasion in Heatley on August 25, 2020.
It comes after the couple were both found guilty by a jury last month of one count of burglary at night while armed in company, one count of attempted armed robbery in company with personal violence and one count of threatening violence.
The court heard the couple, and an unknown male co-offender arrived at a home in Heatley and attempted to rob the family living there at about 10pm.
Judge Gregory Lynham said the group managed to gain entry into the home after Kissier, who knew the family, said she needed to use their bathroom.
While she was in the toilet, the two men she came with entered the lounge room, Sielaff was armed with a sawn-off shotgun, and the unknown cooffender had a taser.
A confrontation ensued, and Sielaff pointed the gun he was holding at one of the residents, Rodney Pitts, who was attempting to get to the back door to let the dogs in.
The court heard there was another confrontation in the kitchen, and Kissier told Sielaff to shoot Mr Pitts shortly before he managed to let the dogs in.
The group of intruders then fled the house without any stolen property, and Mr Pitts went outside to see the number plate of the car they were leaving in.
The unknown male co-offender, who was in the back seat of the car, pointed a gun at where Mr Pitts stood at the fence, discharged a shot and a pellet injured his leg.
The court heard the couple were located by police the next day at a car wash in Ingham, and they were arrested and charged.
Kissier’s defence lawyer Jack Kennedy said his client was a Mackay woman whose offending was “born out of drug abuse.”
He said she had been in a relationship with Sielaff for about five years, and the couple were expecting a child together before she lost the baby while in custody.
Sielaff’s lawyer told the court his client started using drugs at an early age but his drug use escalated after being subject to sexual abuse.
Judge Gregory Lynham sentenced Sielaff to nine years imprisonment, which he was ordered to serve concurrently with the remaining 20 months of his suspended sentence.
Kissier was sentenced to seven years and nine months for the same bundle of offences
and two and a half years imprisonment for a separate indictment that she pleaded guilty to. Both of them had the 793 days they spent in pre-sentence custody declared as time served under their sentences.