“I’m just shitting myself,” a panicked Ivan D’Angelo told the emergency services operator in the moments after shooting Wade Vandenberg.
“He’s just lying there, that’s all I can see,” he said.
“I’ve fired a shot and panicked. I didn’t know what to do”.
Mr Vandenberg and two associates planned to break into D’Angelo’s Thomastown workshop to steal parts for his VL Commodore.
Puzzle over car-lover Wade Vandenberg’s death outside auto spray factory in Thomastown
Mollie Vandenberg holds a picture of her brother Wade Vandenberg, who was shot dead in a bungled burglary attempt.
D’Angelo told police he panicked, grabbed his gun and screamed out at the men from a window before firing.
He said he had not been aiming at the men and had only wanted to scare them.
“Soon as I fired the shot the other two guys ran and this guy’s just dropped,” he said.
“I freaked and I panicked,” he said.
He later called his brother and told him “there were three blokes with poles, I shot and I think I hit one”.
One of the burglars, who cannot be identified, told the jury he never head D’Angelo scream.
He said if he had, he would have fled.
“I just heard a big bang,” the man said.
“I turned around and looked at Wade. He had a hole in his head and blood was just pouring out.
“It took a second or two to realise what really happened. There was nothing we could’ve done.”
A Supreme Court jury today found D’Angelo not guilty of murder.
The verdict followed a Prasad direction by Judge Lex Lasry meaning they could return a not guilty verdict before hearing the defence case.
Following the verdict D’Angelo pleaded guilty to a single count of manslaughter.
The case returns to court on October 7 for a pre-sentence hearing.
D’Angelo has been remanded in custody.
heraldsun.com.au 14 Aug 2014
Another one of those stories where one can get away with murder?
What about the illegal firearm?
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