A Rockhampton man has been found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a 47-year-old man who was killed in a house fire in August 2019.
Mark Edward Peterson died of smoke inhalation from a fire at his Lakes Creek home in the early hours of August 15, 2019.
David Alan Bradshaw, 42, was charged over his death, after he went to police a month later and confessed to lighting the fire that killed Mr Petersen.
Bradshaw pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court in Rockhampton and the jury took under three hours to come to the guilty verdict.
During the trial, the court was shown an interview between detectives and Bradshaw where he told them he wanted to "inflict serious vengeance" on Mr Petersen when he set fire to the house.
The prosecution argued Bradshaw deliberately set fire to Mr Petersen's house in an act of vengeance, murdering Mr Petersen.
The defence argued Bradshaw's interview with police was not reliable evidence, because the defendant was not taking his prescribed medication for severe paranoid schizophrenia at the time and he was delusional and unable to untangle truth from reality.
The interview
On day two of the trial, the court was shown a two-hour interview between detectives and Bradshaw that took place at Roma Street Headquarters in Brisbane on September 14, 2019.
During the interview, Bradshaw told police he voluntarily drove from Rockhampton to Brisbane that day because he was "pretty sure he'd done something bad" and wanted to confess.
At the start of the interview, Bradshaw told police he had severe paranoid schizophrenia and that he had not been on his correct dose of medication for a few days.
Bradshaw said he "rants and raves" and becomes irrational when he is off his medication and turns to alcohol and drugs.
The video showed Bradshaw telling police about his movements on the night of the fire, and that he had "snapped" earlier in the day, and the reason he set out was for vengeance.
He told police of a number of incidents involving Mark Petersen and others at his house, and said he thought they were "out to get him".
Bradshaw told police he walked to Mr Petersen's house on the night of the fire, found an old rag on a wooden chair under the home and set it alight using a lighter and a mix of petrol and kerosene that he carried with him.
He told police he threw the lit rag on the chair and ran away, that he was unsure if Mr Petersen was home, and recalled seeing flames and fire trucks pass him later in the night as he was walking home.
'He confessed', says prosecutor
In his closing address, Crown prosecutor Joshua Phillips told the court Bradshaw set fire to Mr Petersen's house with a purpose of vengeance and that he was guilty.
"The uncontested evidence of the medical cause of his death was smoke inhalation. He died in that fire — it's the only source of smoke in his system," Mr Phillips said.
"What caused the fire? David Alan Bradshaw. He confessed to four officers over two instances over about two hours.
"This isn't somebody that offers a fleeting confessional statement. This is a detailed and thorough account of what happened, commenced voluntarily by Bradshaw."
Mr Phillips told the court it was obvious that setting the fire in the evident circumstances was a danger to human life.
"Setting this fire … in the way he's detailed, with an accelerant, on some dry cushions and timber chairs was always going to kill an occupant.
"That analysis … interpretation of the evidence means he's guilty of murder."
'You cannot untangle his reality', says defence
In his closing address, defence barrister Andrew Hoare told the court Bradshaw was not guilty because the interview with police could not be counted as reliable evidence.
Mr Hoare told the court Bradshaw's severe paranoid schizophrenia and unmedicated, fatigued state meant he was delusional.
"You should have doubt, which infects the entire way the case has been presented to you. You cannot untangle where his reality begins and ends," Mr Hoare said.
"It's not said that everything in that interview was false, but you could not be satisfied on that interview that it is reliable and effectively truthful."
