WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains an image of a person who has died
A mother and son deliberately ran down an Indigenous teen with their ute before leaving him to die by the side of a road, a jury has found.
Jayden Walmsley-Hume, 20, and his mother Katie Walmsley, 40, were found guilty of murder on Tuesday following a three-week trial in the NSW Supreme Court.
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The pair saw 18-year-old Taj Jared Hart walking on the side of the road in Nowra, on the NSW south coast, on February 24, 2022, before Walmsley-Hume deliberately steered a white dual-cab ute towards him, crown prosecutor Kate Ratcliffe previously told the jury.
The vehicle mounted the kerb and collided with the teen, pulling him underneath before the pair drove off.
Walmsley-Hume would later explain the damage to the vehicle by saying he had hit a kangaroo, the jury heard.
His mother later helped her son clean out the ute before it was seized by police and used fake names to arrange accommodation in various hotels, motels and caravan parks for weeks after the collision to help her son evade detection.
The pair were on the run until their arrest on April 7, 2022, the jury was told.
Walmsley-Hume had a background of conflict with Hart and the pair had been involved in a number of altercations, including one in which the killer’s elbow was badly fractured.
“(The murder) occurred after a build-up of extreme animosity and violent conduct by both accused towards Hart and his mates,” Ratcliffe said.
The victim’s grandmother, Glenda Hart, celebrated the jury’s verdict in a Facebook post to a supporter group on Tuesday.
“Both convicted of murder, yah hoo,” she wrote.
Walmsley-Hume’s barrister Sharyn Hall SC told the jury it was not in dispute her client killed Hart, but argued he had acted impulsively without the intention of killing the teenager.
Hall agreed the history of violence between the pair was on Walmsley-Hume’s mind, but she argued he had struck Hart only “to call on a confrontation, bring on a fight”.
Katie Walmsley’s barrister Edward Anderson told the jury there was also insufficient evidence about his client’s state of mind at the time to convict her of murder.
The jury would have to accept she agreed the pair should drive the ute into Hart to kill him or cause him serious injury, he said.
“Knowing this was going to occur on a busy street, at three o’clock in the afternoon, in front of countless witnesses, in a car registered to her son,” he said.
The pair will return to court for a sentence hearing at a later date.
First Nations people seeking mental health support should contact Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN on 13 92 76 or 13yarn.org.au.