Killer for love gets life term
AFTER dispatching his love rival with 10 bullets to the head, Adam James Gooley was ready to start a new life with the girl of his dreams.
Instead he’s been condemned to life behind bars for the cold-blooded execution of Gold Coast businessman Shyam “Sam” Dhody.
Gooley, 34, maintains he acted alone when he went to 37-year-old Mr Dhody’s home in July 2013 and unloaded 10 rounds of a .22 calibre rifle into the Indian-born man’s head and neck as he lay in bed.
Crown prosecutor Dennis Kinsella said at a Brisbane sentencing hearing yesterday the motive behind the killing lay in Gooley’s five-year on-again, off-again secret relationship with Mr Dhody’s fiancee.
Gooley, a mechanic, believed Mr Dhody was hitting her and had vowed to kill him, Mr Kinsella said.
He almost succeeded in a vicious March 2013 crowbar attack which was interrupted by a neighbour.
Several weeks later Gooley’s lover called him after learning her fiance was due home early from a business trip.
Gooley borrowed his father’s gun, went to the Gilston home and executed his rival on July 5, 2013, allegedly while his lover was in the house.
Gooley was arrested in August 2013 and pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder in July this year.
His lover is facing the same charges.
Gooley rejects the suggestion his lover was complicit, his lawyer John Allen QC told the court yesterday.
Justice David Boddice gave the prisoner the minimum mandatory punishment for murder – life imprisonment with no parole for 20 years.