A South Austalian woman has been sentenced to a mandatory life sentence in jail after being found guilty of murdering her housemate in 2016.
The Supreme Court jury heard that 42-year-old Leanne Prak fatally stabbed 65-year-old Holden Hill resident Michael McEvoy eight times in his home in 2016, before licking his blood off the knife and saying “now you see what I’m capable of.”
It was heard that Prak was heavily intoxicated and attacked McEvoy during a heated argument. The jury heard that Prak made three phone calls after the attack, which didn’t include an emergency call for an ambulance. Prak also sent a text to a friend saying “SOS he dead” with a police emoji. She then blamed the fatal stabbing on her ex-boyfriend, who was also present at the time.
McEvoy had offered Prak a place to stay to keep her from being homeless – a situation that McEvoy had previously found himself in before living in his unit in Holden Hill.
Supreme Court judge Justice David Peek said that Prak showed no remorse for the murder of McEvoy – who has a history of “violent offending” and understood the seriousness of the situation – and sentenced her to a life sentence with a non-parole period of 20 years, the minimum sentence for murder.
He conceded that as the murder was not pre-meditated and she would not have killed McEvoy if she were not “grossly intoxicated”, a minimum life sentence of 20 years was suitable. Justice Peek will revisit submissions in November this year with the possibility of increasing the non-parole period.
