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[2005] VSC 348
Supreme Court of Victoria
2005-09-01
BELL J
Original judgment source is linked above.
CRIMINAL LAW - Sentencing - Murder of parents - 28 years' imprisonment - 23 years non-parole period.
1 Giuseppe Russo you have been found guilty by a jury of the murder of your parents, Gaetano and Maria Russo, at Altona North in 1998.
2 This is the second time you have been tried for these crimes. The verdict of guilty of the first jury in a trial conducted by Justice Redlich was overturned on appeal on legal grounds. You were retried before a jury in a trial conducted by me and again a verdict of guilty was returned.
3 The members of that jury were conscientious and diligent. They found you bashed your elderly and defenceless parents to death in their own home for financial gain. Because of the weight of the evidence against you, they found your protestations of innocence to the police, not repeated to the jury because you did not give evidence, were lies.
4 Your counsel gave me some insight into your personal background, the narrow and traditional nature of your upbringing, the loving relationship you, an only child, had with your parents and the support you gave them in many ways over the years, especially when they were sick. He gave me a summary of your educational and work history.
5 The crimes were committed in the following circumstances. Despite all the love, negative emotional forces built up in your small family over a long period of time. Although an adult, you felt strongly entitled to share in your parents' financial resources. You were retrenched and then dissipated your own modest savings. Under pressure for money, you called on your parents' generosity, as you had done often in the past. When they refused, you exploded into a murderous rage and bashed them to death. You then unsuccessfully attempted to conceal your actions.
6 Following your conviction by the first jury, Justice Redlich sentenced you to imprisonment for 28 years with a minimum of 23 years before being eligible for parole. Your counsel has submitted the circumstances leave it open to me to impose a lesser sentence, or at least a lesser minimum sentence.
7 You have committed two brutal crimes for which you have expressed no remorse. You continue to protest your innocence.
8 The nature and gravity of the crimes are of the most serious kind and deserve the strongest denunciation. You and other people must be deterred from committing such crimes in the future. The most precious human right your parents possessed was the right to life itself. Respect for the sanctity of human life, especially for the lives of those who have given us life, is our most fundamental moral and legal obligation.
9 You are 41 years of age and have no prior convictions. Your actions were wholly out of character. The crimes were not premeditated. You have been a devoted parent of your two children.
10 You committed two crimes but at the same time and in the same circumstances, which I have described.
11 You have a former wife, Michelle Russo, and your two children, Guy and Emma, are aged about 14 and 12. I was given a moving victim impact statement by Ms Russo on behalf of these two innocent children and their grandparents. It tells the tragic story of a family that has suffered, and continues to suffer, in difficult circumstances. Nonetheless Ms Russo is extremely proud of her children for growing up into well-adjusted, loving and clever little adults, just as their grandparents would have been extremely proud. When they are old enough to understand, Guy and Emma may consider that their mother is an inspirational woman.
12 I have considered for myself the relevant sentencing considerations and independently concluded that the sentence imposed by Justice Redlich is in all respects appropriate. The evidence presented to the first jury differed in only minor respects from the evidence presented to the second. The differences do not justify a sentence lighter than the one imposed by Justice Redlich.
13 On count 1 for the murder of your father, Gaetano Russo, you are sentenced to be imprisoned for 18 years. On count 2 for the murder of your mother, Maria Russo, you are sentenced to be imprisoned for 18 years. I order that 10 years of count 2 be served cumulatively with count 1 resulting in a total effective sentence of 28 years. I fix a minimum of 23 years before you become eligible for parole. Pursuant to section 18 of the Sentencing Act 1991 I declare that the time that you have spent in custody in relation to these proceedings is 767 days (inclusive of today) and I direct that it be reckoned as a period of imprisonment already served under the sentence imposed.
R
Russo [2005] VSC 348