A man who stabbed his neighbour to death at a public housing unit block in Canberra's south had ripped the screen door of the man's unit because "he hates his guts" and was "aggro", a woman told police.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Scott Jamie Cole, 41, switched his plea this year and admitted to killing Jason Hollingshed, 46, after the pair argued at Stuart Flats in Griffith on February 29 in 2016.
Police found Mr Hollingshed's body when they were called to the Light Street complex about 4.30pm.
Cole was arrested at the scene and later charged with murder.
He faced the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday for a disputed facts hearing as there were some aspects of the police statement of allegations the prosecution and defence had not agreed on.
The dispute centred around whether or not Cole had torn off Mr Hollingshed's screen door shortly before the killing.
The court heard evidence from a woman, whose name has been suppressed, who spent time with Cole and several others at the unit block, where the two men lived in neighbouring units, the day of the killing.
She said she remembered hearing a screen door rattling when Cole went upstairs to Mr Hollingshed's unit soon before the stabbing but "wasn't clear" on what happened afterwards.
But the court heard she'd told police, in an interview soon after the murder, that Cole had gone upstairs and ripped the door off about an hour before the fatal stabbing.
When police asked her why, the woman said she didn't know why Cole became aggressive and argued with Mr Hollingshed.
"Because he hates his guts, I guess," she'd said.
She told police she had heard "the shaking of a screen door, the rattling" upstairs.
"I heard it and [Cole] came down and said, 'I've done it, yeah'.
"I'm pretty sure he said he'd done it. Yeah he did, he did. He pulled it off."
When police asked why, the woman had replied: "I just know he's got beef with him, he's just got beef with him.
"I don't know why's angry."
She hadn't seen Mr Hollingshed's door but she knew he'd damaged it somehow, she said.
"He wanted to go up there and talk, talk to Jason," she said.
Police asked if Cole had said anything before he went upstairs, to which she replied: "He did but I don't remember ... I just know that he was agro."
Whe he returned, he had "slashed his face on both sides".
"He said he ripped the screen door," the woman told police.
Under questioning from prosecutor Margaret Jones, the woman said the version of events she told police had been true at the time but now had no memory of what happened.
The court heard further evidence that Mr Hollingshed started yelling when he went upstairs and saw the damage and had said to Cole, "What the f--- did you do to my screen door?"
Cole had replied, "I don't know what happened to it."
The woman had told police Cole then ran upstairs, where she assumed he stabbed Mr Hollingshed.
Under cross-examination from defence barrister Steven Whybrow, the woman admitted she had not seen many of the events she described to police.
She "vaguely" remembered telling officers Cole said he didn't know what happened to the door.
Justice Burns ordered a pre-sentence report and drug and alcohol assessment.
Cole returns to court for the rest of his sentence hearing on November 13.
