Dock-jumper’s drug, handgun appeal misfires
A DOCK-JUMPING prisoner who tried running from court when he was found guilty has had a crack at getting his convictions quashed.
Thomas James Carlin leapt from a Toowoomba Supreme Court dock last June when jurors found him guilty of four drug and gun possession charges.
And under tight security in August, he was sentenced at Brisbane Supreme Court to three years six months’ jail, with parole eligibility set for February 10, 2019.
A female supporter at Carlin’s sentencing seemed happy at the sentence, telling a defence barrister: “Good score, mate.”
But Carlin appealed against the convictions, taking his case to the state’s top court.
Carlin’s downfall came after a curious cleaner at Toowoomba’s Shamrock Hotel Motel noticed a black duffel bag in a cupboard.
Opening the bag, the cleaner saw syringes inside.
The hotel’s owner then inspected the bag and found marijuana, a handgun, cash, syringes and bags of pills inside.
Carlin, then in his mid-20s, was not occupying the room where the bag was found.
But police also searching the bag in September 2016 found photos and documents linked to Carlin, and he was charged.
Carlin’s lawyers told Queensland Court of Appeal he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
They claimed the trial judge failed to give jurors the right directions about aspects of the case.
The appeal court said the Crown case was totally circumstantial.
“The facts proved by the evidence led by the Crown…were not disputed by the defence but the inferences which the Crown invited the jury to draw from those facts were contentious,” Appeal Court President Walter Sofronoff wrote in a new judgment.
But Justice Sofronoff said Carlin did not complain that the circumstantial evidence was too weak to support guilty verdicts.
The President, Justice Hugh Fraser and Justice Robert Gotterson unanimously rejected the appeal.
Carlin was convicted for possessing ecstasy, steroids and marijuana, and for receiving a stolen firearm.