FOR nearly three years Adam Andrew Bidner has tried desperately to avoid being implicated in the cowardly and gruesome murder of Shane Mears.
First, immediately after running Mr Mears down from behind in the Cessnock Waste Management Centre, he sped away, leaving the 54-year-old for dead.
Then he concealed, cleaned and disguised his car and switched the tyres from the ones that had driven over Mr Mears to those with a different tread.
After his arrest, he pleaded not guilty to murder, manslaughter, dangerous driving occasioning death and failing to stop and assist after vehicle impact causing death, claiming there was no link between his Toyota Landcruiser and the death of Mr Mears.
And then in December, on what was supposed to be the eve of his murder trial, he raised, through his lawyers, the prospect that he was unfit to stand trial due to a traumatic brain injury he suffered in a car accident a number of years ago.
A clinical neuropsychologist who assessed Bidner found he was "intentionally feigning impairment" and Justice Helen Wilson found him fit to stand trial.
Then, as recently last week, Bidner continued to vehemently maintain his innocence, pleading not guilty to all charges before a jury on the first day of his trial in Newcastle Supreme Court.
There was no DNA and no blood found on his car and the tyres did not match the tyre print found on the back of Mr Mears's shirt, Bidner's barrister Mark Hobart, SC, told the jury during his opening address.
That was Wednesday. But by Thursday the defence position had shifted dramatically.
Bidner now wanted to plead guilty to murder, Justice Wilson was told, and on Monday, after delaying over the weekend while he apparently had seconds thoughts, he admitted he was the one responsible for running down and killing Mr Mears.
So what changed? Why the stunning reversal?
As Justice Wilson told the jury before they were discharged, additional evidence had come to light; expert evidence showing the tyre print found in the dust at the Cessnock tip and on the back of Mr Mears's shirt could be "directly and exactly" linked to Bidner's Landcruiser.
The evidence against Bidner had already appeared overwhelming, but now it was insurmountable.
And so nearly three years after he so callously ran down the 54-year-old Mr Mears, Bidner finally took responsibility. He will face a sentence hearing in April.
Bidner and Mr Mears had been involved in an ongoing feud for more than a year when Mr Mears was run down from behind while scavenging for scrap metal in the Cessnock Waste Management Centre on the afternoon of July 5, 2020, Crown prosecutor Brian Costello said during his opening address last week.
Mr Costello said the feud and "ongoing animosity" between Bidner and Mr Mears stemmed from an altercation between Bidner and one of Mr Mears' friends in April, 2019, during which Bidner was armed with a wooden object and Mr Mears' friend was injured.
The altercation was filmed and the video circulated around Cessnock before Mr Mears saw it and became angry with Bidner, Mr Costello said.
After Mr Mears had offered to fight Bidner a number of times over the next 12 months, Mr Costello said the feud came to a head inside the Cessnock tip.
Using bushtracks and holes in the fence, Bidner, Mr Mears and four others had snuck into the tip after hours on the afternoon of July 5, 2020, to scavenge for scrap metal.
No one saw what happened, but at some point Bidner deliberately drove his Landcruiser at Mr Mears, striking him from behind, knocking him to the ground and then driving up and over his body until one tyre was resting on his shoulder and neck.
Mr Mears's friend found him lying face down in the dirt with a tyre track across his back at 5.03pm and called for help.
Meanwhile, Bidner was speeding away and putting in place a plan to avoid being implicated in Mr Mears's death.
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