A fourth person has pleaded guilty to their involvement in the death of Glenn Walewicz, admitting to helping organise the 2021 home invasion that resulted in the murder.
Jayden Douglas Williams had been scheduled to fight the allegations against him at a trial later this year. Instead, he appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday (28 June), pleading guilty to a charge of attempted aggravated burglary.
On 10 June 2021, Gary Taylor, a 17-year-old and a 12-year-old boy had gone to Mansfield Place in Phillip to steal drugs and cash from two drug dealers but went to the wrong home and ended up knocking on the door of Mr Walewicz.
In closed-circuit television footage previously shown to the court, he could be heard calling, “Who is it?” from inside his home before one of the intruders said, “Open up”, and the 17-year-old fired a gun when he opened the door.
The 48-year-old was shot in the neck and died shortly afterwards.
Jayden is the son of Nicole Williams, the alleged architect behind the home invasion, who continues to fight the allegations against her.
According to court documents, it is alleged Nicole sent him texts on 9 June 2021 asking him to message “Gaz”, being Taylor, when the 17-year-old was ready to “do them fullas over”, meaning the two drug dealers.
“[The 17-year-old] said yeah he’s down he’ll do it now he said,” Jayden replied.
It is alleged that the reference to “do them fullas over” means conduct a home invasion.
At about 7 pm on 10 June, Jayden allegedly texted his mother asking her to tell “[sic] Gaz to answer his phone bc [the 17-year-old] wants to go do [one of the drug dealers] over”.
The 17-year-old had tried to call Taylor eight times around 7 pm.
Jayden was in Baradine, NSW, when the home invasion took place and the prosecution did not allege he played any part in the murder.
The next year, he booked a one-way train ticket in his mother’s name that was to leave Canberra on 7 June 2022.
Police arrested Nicole, then aged 38, at Kingston Station that day.
Jayden, then 19, was arrested in Glen Innes later that same month and extradited to the ACT. He has been in custody since then.
Taylor pleaded guilty to murder and was handed 10 years and three months’ jail, the 17-year-old also confessed to the murder and remains to be sentenced, while getaway driver Reatile Ncube was spared being returned to jail when he was sentenced.
A charge against the 12-year-old boy was dropped and Nicole, who was denied bail earlier this year, is scheduled to fight the allegations against her at a trial in September.
In court on Wednesday, Jayden’s lawyer, Anastasia Qvist from Fortify Legal, said she was concerned that he had already spent a substantial amount of time in custody so she did not want a pre-sentence report as it would take at least eight weeks to prepare.
Justice David Mossop said he would not order such a report on her request and listed the matter before the registrar on Thursday (29 June) to begin organising a sentencing date.
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