A Supreme Court jury has found a man guilty of murdering William Chaplin more than 10 years ago.
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The 12-person jury retired on Thursday morning to consider its decision and took less than two hours to deliver a unanimous guilty verdict.
A woman could be heard yelling 'no' immediately after the verdict was handed down in the Wagga Supreme Court about 12.15pm on Thursday.
Supreme Court Justice Michael Walton convicted the man of murdering Mr Chaplin and he is due to be sentenced early next year. The case will first be mentioned in January.
The now 27-year-old man, who was a teenager at the time of the murder, had been accused of being part of a joint criminal enterprise to kill Mr Chaplin and dispose of his body at Gerogery in 2010.
The prosecution said the then-teenager helped an older man - who also cannot be identified due to a court order - murder Mr Chaplin, perhaps after Mr Chaplin witnessed a child sex offence.
Mr Chaplin was reported missing in August 2019 and his remains were found during a police search the following month.
The court heard his body was found buried in a shallow grave on vacant land near Gerogery's Main Street and a fire was lit above it.
During almost three weeks of sittings, the jury heard oral evidence from nine witnesses - including the then-teenager's mother and his friends, police detective Chris Wallace and forensic anthropologist Denise Donlon.
Justice Walton spent all of Wednesday and about half an hour on Thursday morning addressing the jurors and told them to base their verdict on the evidence they had seen and heard.
"You must understand that it is a completely non-negotiable part of your work in this trial and you do it free of any bias, prejudice or sympathy of any kind," Justice Walton said.
"You must put aside all considerations of sympathy or other emotion and act only on the evidence, and according to reason.
"Being judges of the fact requires you to act impartially or dispassionately, but also fearlessly. You must not let sympathy or emotions sway your judgment."
The jurors also listened to telephone intercepts and recordings of police interviews, with sketches of the then-teenager and drone footage also tendered as evidence.
"Verdicts have to be based on the evidence you have seen and heard ... but it must not be based on speculation or prejudice or sympathy," Justice Walton said.
"You must act judicially, by that I mean you must put aside any feelings of sympathy, impartially, hostility, distaste or any personal feelings.
"That is a very important direction in cases of this kind, because there are many things that may invoke from you an emotional response one way or the other."
The prosecution, led by Crown Prosecutor Paul Kerr, had claimed the man was criminally liable for Mr Chaplin's death because he and the other man had formed an agreement to murder him.
The Crown also submitted the pair had an agreement to assault Mr Chaplin and the younger man foresaw or knew of the possibility of the man inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Chaplin, or did foresee the man might have intended to kill him.
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The defence claimed there was no agreement, the younger man did not know what was going to happen and when he did he got scared and he feared for his life.
Defence barrister David Dalton had said there was no independent testimony his client took part in the murder, and repeatedly indicated the prosecution claims were not supported by evidence.
Mr Dalton claimed the phone intercepts and police interviews used as evidence were "totally unreliable" unless independently corroborated.
The court also heard the man told lies in consciousness of his guilt. However, the defence said those lies were all explicable on the basis of consciousness of guilt in assisting to move the body and thereafter being an accessory after the fact.
The man was not charged with being an accessory after the fact and the charge was not an available alternative in the trial.
Andrew Pearson
Andrew grew up in the western Riverina town of Hay and has strong ties to the region. He is a former DA journo who has a passion for breaking news and has covered everything from council and politics to crime and court.
Andrew grew up in the western Riverina town of Hay and has strong ties to the region. He is a former DA journo who has a passion for breaking news and has covered everything from council and politics to crime and court.
