A Mowbray man charged with murder over an alleged role in the killing of Billy Ray Waters in 2019 had the charge dropped in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
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Christopher Leigh Brown, 32, instead pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of murder, trafficking in a controlled substance namely cannabis and dealing with a firearm, namely a 12 gauge single barrel shotgun when not the holder of a firearms dealer's licence.
He had previously pleaded not guilty to murder.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Linda Mason SC told Justice Michael Brett that a two to three week trial had been due to start on March 15, 2021.
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Brown pleaded guilty to knowing that William Adair Rothwell and Jacob Michael Brennan had murdered Mr Waters on August 16, 2019 and had assisted them in order to enable them to escape punishment.
Sentencing submissions to Justice Brett will be made by the Crown and defence counsel Fran McCracken on March 19, 2021.
Rothwell and Brennan were sentenced in February 2020 to 26 years jail with a non parole period of 15 years by Justice Robert Pearce.
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In the 2020 sentencing comments about the murder, Justice Pearce said that Rothwell had been selling cannabis for an older man he would refer to as Mr B.
"Mr B believed that Mr Waters had stolen cannabis from them," he said.
"Mr B asked Mr Rothwell whether he knew anyone who would kill Mr Waters.
"After first responding that Mr B had asked the wrong person Mr Rothwell approached Mr Brennan who agreed.
"On July 31, Mr B gave Mr Rothwell a sawn-off single barrel shotgun."
On August 4, 2019 Rothwell and Brennan arranged to meet Mr Waters at an agreed location taking with them a shotgun, bowie knife and a wooden baton.
Mr Waters was shot in the leg and when he pleaded for help Rothwell and Brennan bashed him repeatedly with a wooden baton to the jaw and with the barrel of the firearm.
"Brennan then took the knife from the backpack and stabbed Mr Waters at least 18 times to his head neck and body," Justice Pearce said.
"As Mr Waters lay moaning on the ground one of the defendants picked up the firearm loaded it with a cartridge and shot Mr Waters in the back of the head. The shot resulted in traumatic damage to his head and brain and killed him immediately."
Justice Pearce said the gun was later returned to Mr B.
In a police interview, Rothwell said that the murder was instigated by Mr B who was "like his boss".
Rothwell and Brennan were paid an ounce of cannabis which they divided between them.
Justice Pearce said that Rothwell's motive for the crime 'could only have been either retribution for stealing the cannabis and interfering with his own or his dealer's illegal activities or to ingratiate himself with his dealer and thereby advantage himself or for the promise of an ounce of cannabis'.
Rothwell and Brennan gave evidence December in preliminary proceedings in the Launceston Magistrates Court.
Brown has been in custody for 16 months after first appearing on the murder charge in October 2019.
Rothwell and Brennan have appealed against their sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
