R v Russo [2003] VSC 164

Supreme Court of Victoria|2003-05-22|Before: REDLICH J

CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Murder - Killing of parents by son

Mr Russo you were convicted by jury of the murder of your parents, Gaetano and Maria Russo at their home in Blackshaws Road, Altona North on 18 April 1998.

Your parents had been very generous in providing you with financial assistance. A unit at 55 Monash Street, Sunshine was purchased for you and your wife to live in and when it was sold you received of the proceeds of sale. Subsequently, a property at Alma Avenue, Laverton was purchased by your parents, the Title being registered in the name of your father and yourself. They purchased a car for you and provided you with other financial assistance.

At the time that your parents were murdered you were separated from your wife and your two children and you were living with your girlfriend, Jenny Rinnan in her home at Heidelberg. You had been retrenched from the Victorian Railways in 1993 and since then had not been in gainful employ. You were in receipt of Unemployment Benefits. No evidence was placed before the jury as to your life style or as to how you supported yourself. Some evidence which threw light on such matters was excluded by agreement between the Crown and your legal representatives in the course of the previous trial in which the jury was discharged prior to the completion of final addresses by counsel.

Your father had been ill for some time. He underwent surgery for bowel cancer and following such surgery used a colostomy bag. He was, it appears on the evidence, cancer free at the time of his death although he was in fairly frail health and needed walking sticks. You were a regular visitor at your parents' home assisting in changing your father's stoma every four or five days. You continued to irregularly stay overnight in your bedroom at your parents' home.

For some time prior to their death you had found it a burden to look after your parents. Prior to their deaths, you had spoken about them in an unkindly and resentful manner. On one occasion you had referred to your father as a silly old bastard who would be better off dead. A number of your former friends testified that you were tired of looking after your parents and that you were angry and frustrated that they did not give you more financial support. Approximately two weeks before their deaths, you revealed that you were in urgent need of a substantial amount of money and expressed frustration that your parents were not prepared to provide you with financial assistance. You said you would bash them. At that time you had virtually no money.

On 18 April 1998, you travelled with your wife to your parents-in-laws' home near Ararat to collect your children, returning to Melbourne in the mid-afternoon. After leaving them, you went to your parents' home and were observed walking toward the front door by a friend at about 5.00 pm. Shortly thereafter, you were heard by a neighbour having an argument with your parents in the back yard. Some time later you viciously assaulted your father in the lounge room of the hous,e using his walking sticks to inflict a large number of wounds to his head. At some stage you also assaulted your mother, first with the walking stick and then by bashing her head against the rear concrete steps on numerous occasions, causing multiple wounds and fractures to the facial bones. After she was dead you covered her face. You were aware that your parents kept a small portable safe on the top shelf of the kitchen pantry, the shelf being some 9 feet from the ground. You took the money from the safe and returned the safe to its position on the top shelf of the pantry. You disturbed the contents of your parents, and a third bedroom, in an attempt to make it appear as though there had been a burglary. There were numerous obvious places in these bedrooms and other parts of the house where your parents kept cash and other valuables, but you did not take these items. You left your bedroom undisturbed. There was evidence to suggest that you used the bathroom before leaving your parents' premises. Later that evening you were seen at the Crown Casino.

On Sunday, 19 April 1998, you looked after your son Guy. You left him with your wife in the early evening, informing your wife that you intended to go to your parents' home as you had not been able to raise them by telephone when you had called them a number of times during the course of the day. You said that you were not intending to go inside but just to check to see that they were alright. You returned to your parents' home and went through the motions of discovering your parents' death. The police attended your parents' home at about 8.00 pm and thereafter you provided investigators with information about your movements on Saturday and Sunday. You had numerous conversations with police on that evening, and during the ensuing weeks and months. You told lies to the police which the jury were satisfied demonstrated a consciousness of guilt of your crime. You told numerous other lies which led to the jury's conclusion that much of your account to the police of your conduct on Saturday, 18 April 1998 was untruthful.

The jury, by its verdict, must have been satisfied about most, if not all of these facts. During the plea no other conclusions of fact were suggested as open, consistent with the jury's verdict. These were facts which were "logically crucial" to the prosecution case or facts which must by implication have been accepted by the jury.[1] I do not regard it as necessary or appropriate to make any findings of fact beyond those to which I have referred.

You are 39 years of age having been born on 1 December 1963 in Melbourne. In an understandably brief plea made on your behalf, I was told you attended Altona Gate Primary School and Altona North High School leaving school in Year 10 in 1979. You became an apprentice fitter and turner, completing your four year apprenticeship at Colonial Sugar Refineries. From 1984 you were self-employed, utilising your skills as a fitter and turner together with some mechanical knowledge to carry out mechanical repairs from the garage of your parents' home. You conducted this business until about 1989 when you became a guard on the Victorian Railways. You were retrenched from this position following government re-arrangement of the Railways in 1993 and since that time you have been unemployed. Following your retrenchment you became more involved in the welfare of your parents, particularly your father, who as a result of his serious illness required ongoing care and attention and assistance in travelling to and from medical and like appointments.

In 1988 you married Michelle Russo. You have two children from that marriage, Guy aged 12 and Gemma aged 9. Apart from your parents, your only close relative residing in Australia was your father's sister who married here, had a daughter who in turn has married and has two children of her own. I am informed by your counsel that this part of the family has remained supportive since the deaths of your parents.

You were charged with the murder of your parents on 3 May 2001 and you were on bail from 22 May 2001 until you were remanded in custody following the jury's verdict on 20 March 2003. Although it appears that your relationship with Jenny Rinnan continued after the death of your parents and you continued to reside with her in Heidelberg, no reference was made to any aspect of your personal life during the course of your plea. No evidence or information emerged during the course of the trial or on your plea which gave the Court any insight as to your life style since you separated from your wife some six years ago.

You have been receiving medication to address an anxiety state over the last year. You are currently receiving an anxiety suppressor, Ducene, and have required medication as a result of the stress and anxiety associated with your prosecution.

I take into account in your favour that you are a devoted father to your two children Guy and Gemma and that you have no prior convictions and no history of violence. Although you have not been in gainful employment since 1993 you were for some time a loyal son who provided support to his father after he underwent his surgery. These factors enhance your prospects of rehabilitation.

You have been found guilty of a most brutal and sustained attack upon both of your parents. Your father was struck at least 18 times and in circumstances where initially, despite his infirmity, he attempted to defend himself. Your mother's face was battered beyond recognition. I have already referred to the evidence of your motive for killing your parents. Despite the evidence of your pressing financial needs and your increasing resentment of your parents, the Crown do not challenge the submission made on your behalf that the facts do not support the conclusion that your conduct was premeditated. I propose to sentence you on the basis that your acts were spontaneous and followed an argument with your parents in which you lost control, brutally assaulted each of them and took the money from the safe. You returned the safe to its position on the top shelf of the pantry resolving to make it appear as a crime committed during an attempted burglary of the house by a stranger.

In assessing the appropriate penalty for your offences I take into account the fact that your parents were elderly and vulnerable. The manner in which you killed your parents has all of the hallmarks of anger and fury. It is implicit in the jury's verdict that you were, whether by great care or good fortune, able to conceal your involvement in these crimes. You concealed or disposed of the clothing which you wore at the time that you murdered your parents. You repeatedly lied to investigators about your movements and over the ensuing months gave detailed false explanations as to your conduct.

The video interviews did not demonstrate that you were suffering from any apparent psychological or psychiatric disturbance. Rather, the evidence suggests you proceeded under the misguided belief that your parents, who had been exceedingly generous to you, had some continuing obligation to meet your financial demands. The circumstances which led to your pressing financial need remains unknown. Most of your personal circumstances for some years prior to your conviction remain a mystery.

In determining the appropriate sentence I have considered the provisions of the Sentencing Act 1991 and the more important recent authorities dealing with multiple killings referred to in Camilleri v R [2001] VSCA 14; (2001) 119 A Crim R 106 @ 139.

This is the second occasion within a relatively short time that this Court has found it necessary to sentence a son for the murder of a parent. Though it can still be said that it is a rarity for a son to kill a parent, one of the purposes of the sentence which I must pronounce is to dissuade persons from taking human life whatever their relationship with the victim. This Court has an obligation to protect the sanctity of human life. The sentence which I must impose must reflect this Court's denunciation of your brutal conduct. It must deter others who are minded to resort to such violence as a solution to their problems.

Mr Russo, I have concluded that the appropriate sentences are as follows: on Count 1, the murder of your father, Gaetano Russo you are sentenced to be imprisoned for 18 years. On Count 2, the murder of your mother, Maria Russo, you are also sentenced to be imprisoned for 18 years. I order that ten 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 s 18 of the Sentencing Act 1991, I declare that the time that you have spent in custody in relation to these proceedings is 84 days (inclusive of today's date) and I direct that it be reckoned as a period of imprisonment already served under the sentence imposed.

[1] Cheung v R [2001] HCA 67; (2001) 185 ALR 111 at 114 paragraph [7], 116 paragraph [14].

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