An Indigenous teenager’s alleged killers were drunk, rowdy and packing weapons, a witness has said before admitting he lied under oath at a murder trial.
Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased down, knocked to the ground and “deliberately struck to the head with a metal pole” in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October, 2022.
Jack Steven James Brearley, 23, Brodie Lee Palmer, 29, Mitchell Colin Forth, 26, and Aleesha Louise Gilmore, 23, are on trial in the West Australian supreme court for his murder and have denied murdering him.
One of Gilmore’s younger brothers, Tyler, told the jury on Thursday that he called his sister for help in the hours before Cassius was allegedly attacked.
He told the court he and his younger brother received a series of phone calls and messages.
“I was getting threatening messages and calls, and stuff that people are meant to come to the house,” Tyler said from the witness box.
“Smash it up and stuff.”
Gilmore arrived at their family home where Brearley, her then-boyfriend also lived, with the other three accused in Palmer’s back Ford Ranger ute.
“They were getting like weapons and stuff,” Tyler said under questioning from prosecutor Ben Stanwix.
“Brodie, he was breaking [shopping] trolley poles … in the alleyway [beside the house].
“There were two or three … I’d seen that he had knuckle dusters in his hand before that.”
Tyler, who was 18 at the time, said the accused were “a little bit drunk” and “rowdy” before they drove off to look for the group of people they believed were threatening to damage the Gilmores’ home.
Palmer’s lawyer, former federal attorney-general Christian Porter, forcefully questioned the now-21-year-old about his evidence, comparing it to his statements to police and prosecutors in 2022 and late 2024.
“Today you said you saw Brodie and only Brodie breaking poles off trolleys and you also said a month ago you were not sure if you saw Jack in a statement,” he said.
“The correct answer is you weren’t really sure who was doing what in the alleyway.”
Tyler agreed he was guessing before admitting he lied to police in the days after Cassius died about not knowing why the allegedly armed group had left the house in Palmer’s ute.
“You lied to police to protect Jack and Aleesha … You just lied to the jury under oath a moment ago,” Porter said.
“Yes,” Tyler responded.
The trial continues.