Cassius Turvey murder trial jury retires to deliberate verdicts
Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased down, knocked to the ground and 'deliberately struck to the head' in Perth's eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022.
Aleesha Louise Gilmore, 23, her then-boyfriend Jack Steven James Brearley, 24, and his mates, Brodie Lee Palmer, 29, and Mitchell Colin Forth, 26, are on trial in the WA Supreme Court for Cassius' murder.
Prosecutors allege Brearley delivered the fatal blows while 'hunting for kids' because somebody had smashed his car windows and allege Forth and Palmer aided him, and, along with Gilmore, had a common purpose.
Brearley denies he struck Cassius with a pole, saying he only punched him after the teen knifed him and that Palmer struck the fatal blows – which Palmer denies.
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The trial that started in early February has been told the alleged attack on Cassius in bushland was 'the end point of a complex series of events that had absolutely nothing to do with him'.
Prosecutor Ben Stanwix told the jury it was a 'tit-for-tat escalation' and Brearley and Forth had later used a car as a weapon and chased down two boys, hitting one of them.
The following day, Gilmore's brothers warned that a group of teens could be coming to their family home, where Brearley also lived, looking for a fight.
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