A suburban marijuana grower has admitted to shooting a man in Canberra's north during a bizarre series of events that began with a drunken knock on the wrong door.
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Benjamin Darrell Hallam, 33, pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm, discharging a firearm at a building, using a prohibited firearm, attempting to conceal evidence and cultivating cannabis.
A further three charges - discharging a firearm endangering life, inflicting actual bodily harm and possessing ammunition - were withdrawn.
The events that gave rise to the charges occurred on May 30, when Hallam was drinking at a party in Dunlop with people including his ex-girlfriend Isabella Denis and friend Paul Fredrickson.
When Denis left in a rage and walked to visit a friend in the same suburb, she knocked on the door of the wrong Percy Begg Circuit house and apologised to the occupants for her mistake before lying down on the road outside.
The couple who lived in this house were concerned Denis would be run over, and when she would not move of her own volition the man lifted her off the road and placed her on the footpath.
An increasingly belligerent Denis swore and leapt off the ground to hit the man in the face, then kicked over the couple's letterbox and fled when informed that they were going to call the police.
Court documents say Denis then falsely told Hallam she had "been bashed by five black guys", prompting Hallam to take Fredrickson to the address in question "to find out what was going on".
The pair turned up at the Percy Begg Circuit home in Hallam's Toyota Landcruiser, and Hallam approached the house with a shotgun as Fredrickson carried a baseball bat.
Police say Fredrickson smashed some glass in the front door and struggled with the male occupant, who reached through and grabbed the bat.
During the brief tussle, Hallam fired the shotgun through the door, hitting the victim in the chest and leaving him with non-life-threatening injuries.
Hallam later dumped the gun in a pond in a Dunlop nature reserve, then returned to his home in Charnwood.
Following his arrest early the next morning, police searched Hallam's home and discovered that he had been growing cannabis using a hydroponic set-up.
After Hallam entered his pleas on Wednesday, Magistrate James Stewart committed him to the ACT Supreme Court for sentence.
Mr Stewart also ordered a pre-sentence report and an assessment of Hallam's suitability for restorative justice.
Hallam, who spent two weeks in custody following his arrest, is on bail ahead of his first appearance in the Supreme Court for directions next Thursday.
Denis has already been sentenced to a good behaviour order after pleading guilty to common assault and property damage.
Fredrickson remains before the courts on a number of charges.
