An aboriginal man who stabbed his sister’s boyfriend to death with a steak knife has been cleared of murder and manslaughter by a jury in Far North Queensland after a judge urged them to consider the cumulative effects of domestic violence.
Nathan Andrew Shane Morris, 22, walked free on Thursday after spending two and a half years in custody awaiting trial for killing Rodney Frampton, 34, in Caravonica, Cairns, on the night of October 7, 2022.
A Supreme Court jury unanimously found Morris not guilty of murder following a day of deliberation after a seven-day trial, leaving Mr Frampton’s family horrified.
“My brother was stabbed from behind while he was making a feed,” one relative shouted to 7 News cameras outside court.
The court heard there were seven people living in the “crazy and chaotic” three bedroom home that was “wracked with serious domestic violence” in the lead-up to the stabbing, the Cairns Post reported.
Defence barrister Tim Grau urged the jury to consider whether Morris was provoked by the violence present in the home or whether he was aiding in self defence on behalf of his mother.
Justice Jim Henry then asked the jury of six men and six women to take into account the long-term effects domestic violence may have had on Morris, along with issues of aiding self-defence.
“There can be a cumulative loading on the mind of someone exposed to domestic violence over time,” Justice Henry said, ABC News reported.
The court heard that Morris was afraid Mr Frampton, the boyfriend of his 18-year-old sister Hayley Morris, was about to hurt his mother so grabbed a steak knife and started “randomly” stabbing him.
Mr Frampton bled to death from five knife wounds to the heart and lungs, but Morris later said he felt “scared and confused” and that he didn’t think he would kill Mr Frampton.
Mr Grau said his client had “terrible anxiety issues” and was “fearful or concerned” about an anticipated attack on his mother.
But prosecutor Liz Kelso had argued there had been no violence between Morris and Mr Frampton, who was in a different part of the house to Morris’s mother when he was killed.
The court heard that there had been violence between Hayley Morris and Mr Frampton in the home, as well as against Morris’s father, who slept though the killing after a day of drinking, and that Hayley had been hitting her mother with a broomstick before the stabbing.
Header image: Left, Nathan Morris. Right, Rodney Frampton (Facebook).
