Six years for stepdad who shot neighbour dead in row over barking dogs
An exchange of words between neighbours over barking dogs led to a man being shot dead when a young woman and her stepfather wrestled for control of a sawn-off shotgun.
Jason Lee Ashman was on Thursday jailed for six years for unintentionally killing his stepdaughter's neighbour, Dwayne Wright, who was standing behind the wire screen door of his Altona unit when the shotgun discharged and he was hit in the chest.
Blood can be seen on the door of the Altona unit.Credit:Sam Cucchiara/Nine News
Ashman took the weapon outside on December 23, 2018 as his stepdaughter, Jemma Chumbley, and her neighbour Mr Wright exchanged words after her dogs barked at him as he walked past about 10.30pm.
The Supreme Court heard Ms Chumbley saw her stepfather holding the shotgun and tried to pull it from him and as they wrestled the gun fired and blasted a hole through Mr Wright's screen door and into the 26-year-old. He died inside his unit.
Dwayne Wright.
Justice John Champion told Ashman, 49, he had no business carrying an unregistered shotgun, and although he never intended to fire the weapon or for Mr Wright to be shot, it was clear he would not walk away from the dispute.
"Your actions in approaching him and employing the intimidation of a dangerous firearm, which has never been recovered, must be condemned as unnecessary and a gross overreaction to the circumstances that occurred between neighbours," Justice Champion said.
"You acted in a cowardly, provocative and aggressive manner towards an unarmed and innocent man which led to his death."
When Mr Wright and his girlfriend walked past Ms Chumbley's unit, the court heard, her dogs began barking and he told them to "shut the f--- up."
Ms Chumbley went outside with a baseball bat and told Mr Wright, "Stop screaming at my dogs, you're scaring my sisters. They're meant to bark ... I don't want to be scared in my own home."
The dispute escalated and Mr Wright told his neighbour, "I'm going to get your house run through. I know when you're home alone."
Homicide squad detectives leave the Altona home with bags of evidence.Credit:AAP
When Ashman came outside he called Mr Wright a "junkie" and the younger man called the stepfather a "paedophile".
Mr Wright was behind his screen door throughout the exchange of words, Justice Champion said, and would never have expected to be shot.
The death of a young, autistic and vulnerable man was tragic, the judge said, and left his family in enduring pain, sadness and anger. He died on his mother's birthday.
Ashman fled after the shooting and made no attempt to check on Mr Wright. Justice Champion said he was not persuaded by Ashman's claim that he, his stepdaughter and his two daughters feared Mr Wright's friends would come to the unit to confront them.
The former labourer and wharf worker pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
He spent time in jail as a younger man for violent assaults but Justice Champion acknowledged Ashman had turned his life around in recent years, that his guilty plea avoided the need for a trial and that he was remorseful.
He must serve four years before he is eligible for parole.
Some family members cried as he was led in to custody.
Rosanna Ashman leaves court last year.Credit:AAP
Last year, Ashman's mother, Rosanna, was jailed for two months for perjury after she gave police a fake alibi for her son and claimed he was with her at the time, walking her dog.