A man that killed another with his van minutes after an altercation in the carpark of a pub, has had his murder conviction downgraded and will soon be eligible for parole.
On 21 February 2014 Michael Meakin, 50, arrived at the hotel in western Sydney around 2:15pm, where he consumed full strength schooners of beer until leaving at midnight.
Sometime after 11pm, Meakin was in a competition of three games of pool with another man when 30-year-old Nicholas McEvoy arrived, who knew the opponent, and by witness accounts boisterously backed Meakin to lose. Some words were exchanged.
A security guard soon suggested McEvoy leave, as he appeared to be intoxicated by alcohol or something else.
Shortly after, more words were exchanged between the men in the car park, and Meakin swung a punch. It failed to connect and McEvoy did not retaliate.
The younger man left the area, walking north through the grounds to Richmond Road, turning south-east toward his home at Quakers Hill.
Meakin got in his van, and a security guard reportedly stressed on him he needed to go home, which was a 20-kilometre drive north-west to Freeman’s Reach.
Minutes later, McEvoy was struck by the van. He was later found dead on the nature strip beside the road, missing a shoe, which was on the road.
Meaking drove home and hid his vehicle behind his house. His record showed drink-driving convictions on three occasions between 2000 and 2009, and one for driving disqualified in 2010.
Following an investigation, he was subsequently convicted of murder, sentenced in 2016 to a maximum of 24 years’ jail with a minimum of 18 years.
Last week the case appeared on appeal at the NSW Supreme Court, before Acting Justice Peter Hidden.
While the Crown prosecution had contended Meakin deliberately ran over McEvoy, Justice Hidden said the evidence fell short of proving the van had mounted the grass verge to hit the pedestrian.
Meakin claimed to have had no idea where the other man had gone after they parted, having left via the exit to the west of the hotel.
He claimed his altered route was inspired by a desire to get McDonalds on the way home, and he did not even know it was McEvoy he had hit. He fled because he knew he was over the blood alcohol limit. Police were consequently not able to take a precise reading, but his BAL was estimated to have been around 0.15.
CCTV presented in evidence showed Meakin purchase schooners on 16 occasions whilst at the hotel, purchasing two beers at once on five occasions, one of which he said may have been for someone else.
The day after the incident he prepared a statement and handed himself in to police.
In the NSW Supreme Court verdict last week Justice Hidden found Meakin not guilty of murder, accepting his plea to the lesser charge of ‘dangerous driving causing death in circumstances of aggravation’.
“It is Mr Meakin’s case that the incident was a tragic accident: that Mr McEvoy stepped or stumbled onto the roadway, and it was there that the van struck him,” said Hidden.
“But I have to say that to deliberately run over Mr McEvoy would be an extraordinarily disproportionate response to conduct properly characterised as annoying or, at most, offensive.”
Last Friday Justice Hidden amended Meakin’s sentence to seven years, with non-parole period of four years.
He has already been in custody since August 2016, meaning he’ll be eligible for parole in August 2020.