By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A serial offender who, for unknown reasons, shot a man in the leg at point blank range on a Cranbourne East street, has been jailed.
Father-of-two Jamie Crockett, 26, was found guilty by a Victorian County Court jury of intentionally causing serious injury.
In sentencing on 28 June, Judge Mark Gamble said a jury was satisfied that Crockett was the gunman and that he intended to injure the victim who suffered a life-threatening wound.
Crockett – who was on bail for car-jacking charges at the time – sat in a Mercedes vehicle near the victim’s home just before 6am on 14 November 2018.
During an argument with the man, Crockett aimed a “shortened” gun at point blank range out of the car window and fired it into the victim’s thigh.
The bullet passed through the leg, severing an artery and causing a significant loss of blood.
In hospital the next day, the man initially identified Crockett as the shooter in a sworn statement to police.
During the trial, he claimed he had no memory of making the statement, and that the gunman was someone else.
He denied that he knew anyone called Jamie Crockett, but later admitted he was a friend.
At trial, the victim painted himself as the aggressor but that didn’t marry with the CCTV footage of the shooting, Judge Gamble said.
“It’s clear to me that (the victim) did his best to sabotage his identification of Mr Crockett as the shooter.
“Unsurprisingly the jury saw through this.”
Crockett also pleaded guilty to being a prohibited person possessing a home-made hand gun, which was found in a Louis Vuitton bag in his girlfriend’s car a week after the shooting.
The gun was loaded, but temporarily not operational, according to police analysis.
Judge Gamble said the shooting of an unarmed man in public rightly concerned the community.
It was “troubling” there was much in the incident that “can’t be known” – with Crockett declining to answer questions in a police interview or to give evidence at trial.
Crockett’s motivation for shooting the victim was “clouded in mystery”, though there seemed to be “ill will” between the men.
It could not be proven that the shooting was pre-meditated before the meeting, the judge noted.
Crockett had been largely in custody since the shooting more than three years ago.
During that time, he was also sentenced to two-and-a-half years jail for carjacking while on parole.
His “escalating” criminal history of weapons and violence dated back to 2014, Judge Gamble noted.
Crockett was diagnosed with PTSD from an abusive childhood with drug-using alcoholic parents.
At 13, his lengthy “spiral” of substance abuse started after a hip replacement. Crockett described his own life as a “crash course”.
However, he’d sobered up during rehab courses in prison, and expressed a desire to lead a stable life.
Judge Gamble said it was in the community’s interest to encourage Crockett’s improved prospects for rehabilitation with an earlier parole period with mental health and drug-abuse treatment.
He also noted the “significant” trial delay caused by the Covid pandemic.
Crockett was jailed for up to five years, 10 months with a non-parole period of three-and-a-half years.
He had already served 487 days in pre-sentence detention.
