A 48-year-old Hobart man has been found guilty of murder after he bashed his friend to death on a camping trip near Interlaken in 2016.
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Russell John Nowoczynski had been drinking throughout the afternoon with his friend Donald William Crow at Mr Crow’s family shack.
On a drive back from a bottleshop at Oatlands, a fight broke out outside the car with Nowoczynski punching and kicking Mr Crow, as well as shoving rocks in his mouth.
Nowoczynski had argued during a police interview and in the trial that his actions were taken in self-defence but this notion was rejected by the jury who took less than four hours to reach their verdict.
The family of the 39-year-old victim had been witness over the two-week trial to descriptions of injuries inflicted on their loved one, said to be consistent with those received in a car accident.
Mr Crow’s mother Vonnie Crow in a victim impact statement tearfully recalled the moment she saw two police officers walk up to her door on a Sunday morning.
“I thought they were going to tell me that Donnie had been killed in a car crash and not in the violent, inhumane way that he died,” she said.
His fiance and mother to his three children, Katrina Lewis, said she had lost “the light of her life” for the past 16 years.
She said her and the rest of Mr Crow’s family had been traumatised about hearing the extent of her partner’s injuries.
“I’m lost without Don by my side and I’m trying to find my way in the world as both a single mother and grieving partner,” Ms Lewis said.
“My children still don’t understand why their father went away for a night and never came back.”
After the guilty verdict, Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates said there remained a question around provocation with Nowoczynski receiving little injuries.
He said Mr Crowe had received horrific head injuries and been left to die.
Defence counsel Kim Baumeler said there was no lead-up to the attack or any evidence to suggest the attack was planned.
She said Nowoczynski had admitted to a loss of self-control and was ashamed of his conduct.
Chief Justice Alan Blow agreed the incident was out of character for a man with no relevant prior convictions and ordered a pre-sentencing psychiatric report be conducted on Nowoczynski.
He will be sentenced on April 16 at 4.15pm.