PISTOL: The pistol police found in the Forest Hill shopping centre car park. Picture: Michael Frogley
WAGGA DISTRICT COURT
THE man seen loading a pistol as he ran along Wagga's Tarcutta Street was on parole for manslaughter, a District Court judge has been told.
Adam Samuel Jones, 28, of Marsden, appeared before Judge Jennifer English in Wagga District Court on Thursday for sentencing after pleading guilty to three major firearm charges and two related offences.
Jones was one of three men charged after a fracas with other males on Small Street on January 9 led to a foot sprint along Tarcutta Street and then a police pursuit to Forest Hill where the trio was arrested.
A .22 Ruger pistol was thrown out of the car the men were in at the Forest Hill shopping centre car park, and Jones was later accused of possessing the weapon, linked to it by DNA found on the weapon.
Police alleged the three men were members of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang.
Jones, his father and his paternal grandparents were found guilty in 2007 of the manslaughter of a 34-year-old man at the Tuggerah Village Caravan Park in 2005.
Jones's solicitor, David Barron, told Judge English his client's parole was revoked on his arrest for the current charges, but the parole was due to expire on Friday.
Mr Barron asked the judge to consider placing Jones on an intensive corrections order or, alternatively, take into account the fact Jones had been in custody for more than nine months because of this matter and not extend his incarceration greatly.
Mr Barron said Jones had instructed him it was the other group that sparked the fight, and Jones had taken the pistol off someone in the other group.
The solicitor said Jones told him he was checking whether or not the pistol was loaded as he racked the weapon while running along the street.
The court heard there were seven bullets in the pistol.
"He now has had (time) to think about what he did on that day," Mr Barron said.
"Your client was running down a main street racking
a loaded pistol"
"He wishes he had done things differently, but you can't turn back the hands of time."
Judge English fired back that the charges faced by Jones drew penalties of up to 14 years.
"Your client was running down a main street racking a loaded pistol," Judge English said.
"He constituted a significant danger to the community."
Judge English will sentence Jones on Friday, but she indicated he would not get out of prison the same day, and may get about two years.
The two other men charged with Jones have been dealt with by the courts.
Charges of affray laid against the pair were withdrawn by police, but one of them - Siaosi Mokofisi - was given eight months' home detention in Wagga Local Court this week for the police pursuit.
The court has been given no information about the other group involved in the brawl or why Jones and his two mates, also from Sydney, were in Wagga.