Jealousy over a former partner culminated in a potentially fatal confrontation in which a firearm discharged while two men wrangled over the weapon.
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Joshua John Pearce, 30, pleaded guilty in the Launcetson Supreme Court on Friday to a count of aggravated burglary on April 1 this year.
Pearce also pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault of Benjamin Smith at the same Invermay Road address and recklessly discharging a firearm.
Crown prosecutor John Ransom said that the complainant had known Pearce for six years.
He said that Mr Smith lived in a unit in Invermay next door to a relative who had a five-year-old child.
He said that some time after communications via Facebook Messenger the victim opened his front door about 10.30pm to see a gun barrel poking through the gap.
"You're f----d, I 'm going to kill you, you dog," Pearce yelled.
"You're dead, I'm going to kill you you c---."
The victim grabbed the barrel, but Pearce continued to yell threats and hit him several times over the head with the gun butt.
Pearce had his finger on the trigger and a live round discharged travelling through the kitchen wall and into Mr Smith's relative's unit. The man and his niece were asleep and suffered no injury.
Mr Ransom said that the short single barrel rifle fell apart during the struggle. Mr Smith gave Pearce and a female accomplice $70 and some cannabis and they departed.
"Stay away from Chrissie," Pearce yelled.
From 3.15am on April 2 he sent a series of text messages saying: "Don't give me a reason to finish you off".
At 3.23: "I came to kill you, sleeping with Chrissie was a bad idea. I was angry for three years".
At 3.38: "You shouldn't have made me wait three years, I know where you live".
In a victim impact statement Mr Smith said he was looking at moving out of town because of anxiety caused by the incident.
"While it was happening I thought 'I can't run, you can't outrun a gun'," the statement said.
The victim suffered bruises and abrasions to the head and a broken ring finger which kept him off work for five weeks.
Mr Ransom said after his arrest on April 5 Pearce had a suspended sentence activated.
"He has a significant record of prior offences," he said.
Defence counsel Lucy Flanagan said prison had been difficult for Pearce who had spent 27 of the last 31 days in lockdown and had to share a cell with another person.
"With the benefit of hindsight he regrets his behaviour," she said.
She said Pearce and the victim had a mutual ex-partner and he had taken issue with behaviour towards the female.
She said his current sentence ran though to mid October.
Justice Stephen Estcourt said it was a very serious crime which could have killed the victim or killed the neighbour and child.
"There are no mitigating circumstances," he said.
He sentenced him to three years' jail to commence from the expiration of the activated suspended sentence.
Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
