THE 47-year-old Narre Warren North man, who was allegedly so drunk he didn’t even know he’d crashed into a Wonthaggi pedestrian in March this year, killing her and her neighbour’s dog, is not in jail.
In fact, when south-eastern suburbs business-owner, Sampath Jayasundara, appeared in the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court on Friday, September 19, facing three charges, including one of culpable driving causing death, his bail was extended.
And a number of the conditions of his $100,000 bail, including the requirement that he report to police weekly and observe a nightly curfew, were removed by Magistrate Mia Stylianou following application from the man’s lawyer, Lucien Richter, a preferred Criminal Trial Barrister in Doyle’s Guide.
Legal representative for the Office of Public Prosecution Alan Cecil offered no objection.
Mr Jayasundara, who has already entered a plea of guilty to the culpable driving charge, when he appeared by video link in the same court on Friday, July 25, was free to go at the end of Friday’s directions hearing, and will face a committal hearing at Morwell on Tuesday, December 2.
His barrister Mr Richter indicated to the court that while his client had no issue with the main charge, he was keen to cross-examine witnesses in relation to the other two charges, one of failing to stop after being involved in a fatal collision and another of failing to render assistance. He allegedly recorded a blood/alcohol reading of between 0.21 and 0.247 at the time.
Mr Richter said his client maintained that he was so drunk at the time, he was not in a position to know that he had hit and killed someone in Campbell Street Wonthaggi on Sunday afternoon, March 2 and would be seeking to interrogate the video footage, taken by police body-worn camera, to support his claims.
“He was not in a state of sobriety at the time that he could have known or ought to have known that he hit someone and in fact, killed someone.”
He said their defence would rely partly on identifying parts of the video footage that supported his client’s claims.
Magistrate Stylianou read out the new conditions of the accused man’s bail, asking his wife, who put up the $100,000 surety bond, if she agreed with the new conditions.
Having completed these preliminaries, Mr Jayasundara left the court with his wife and lawyer.
Several members of the Wonthaggi community attended the hearing.
The victim of the incident was retired retail worker Heather Mills, 68, of Wonthaggi who was out walking a friend’s dog when she was struck by Mr Jayasundara’s car. Both Ms Mills and the dog died as a result.
