CHRISTOPHER Daunt put a semi-automatic pistol to the head of his mate and fellow drug dealer, Christopher Robertson, and accused him of being a police officer in the moments before he was repeatedly hit with a hammer and killed in a North Lambton home in March, 2015.
“You’re either a copper or you’re trying to rip me off and I’m gonna kill you,” Mr Daunt said, according to the account Robertson gave police when he finally confessed to the killing more than a year later.
Mr Daunt was “highly agitated” about a drug deal he was due to make in Sydney and paranoid that Robertson was setting him up when he pulled the gun and threatened Robertson in a North Lambton home about 6.45pm on March 29, according to a statement of agreed facts.
A few moments earlier the pair had smoke amphetamines together and, according to Robertson, he had told Mr Daunt he no longer wanted to supply drugs for him.
Robertson told police Mr Daunt forced him to his knees, kicked him a number of times and was yelling threats at him with the gun pointed at his face when Robertson grabbed a hammer from an open tool box and swung it at Mr Daunt.
He told police he knocked Mr Daunt’s hands out of the way before striking him in the temple with the hammer.
Mr Daunt fell on his back and Robertson jumped on top of him, striking him at least two more times in the head with the hammer “because he was so angry”.
Robertson said he then went to choke Mr Daunt, but realised he was dead.
Robertson, 34, of Cameron Park, appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday via audio visual link from the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre where his legal representative, Public Defender Peter Krisenthal, entered a guilty plea to a charge of manslaughter “on the basis of excessive self defence” after a murder was charge was withdrawn.
It has been more than two years since Mr Daunt, a popular builder living in Gateshead, was first reported missing and 12 months since Robertson confessed to the killing and led police to his body on the side of George Booth Drive at Seahampton.
Robertson had covered his tracks, even sending text messages to Mr Daunt’s parents purporting to be their son; first suggesting he was contemplating suicide and then saying he was fleeing to Perth because someone was after him.
A statement of agreed facts, tendered in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday, outline a complicated and often strained relationship between Mr Daunt and Robertson.
They met about six years ago through a mutual friend and, according to Robertson, Mr Daunt began supplying him with amphetamine and ecstasy.
According to Robertson, there was an altercation between the pair about three weeks before Mr Daunt was killed.
They were at Robertson’s house when Mr Daunt accused Robertson of being a police officer and demanded proof he wasn’t.
Robertson said he showed Mr Daunt a number of parking fines which appeared to placate him.
It was at that time, according to Robertson, that Mr Daunt first showed him the semi-automatic pistol in the waistband of his pants.
On the day he died, Mr Daunt was supposed to head to Sydney to supply two people with drugs.
But first he had to stop by Robertson’s house to make a collection.
Robertson gave him $1800 and the pair smoke amphetamines on the verandah of Robertson’s North Lambton home.
Robertson says he told Mr Daunt he no longer wanted to supply drugs and Mr Daunt became agitated and again accused him of being a police officer.
They went inside for a while and, according to Robertson, repeated the process; they went outside, smoked amphetamines and Robertson told Mr Daunt he was out of the drug business.
At 6.42pm, Mr Daunt received a phone call about the drug deal in Sydney.
He hung up, went outside to his car and returned to the house “highly agitated”, Robertson later told police.
What happened next; the gun, the threats, the hammer, all comes from Robertson.
He was the only other person in the house.
After he killed Mr Daunt, Robertson told police he wrapped his body in a tent, took his wallet and placed the firearm and hammer in a towel.
He cleaned the blood from the house, moved Mr Daunt’s car and later drove his body to bushland at Seahampton, returning the next three nights to throw dirt and dry concrete over it.
Robertson will appear in Newcastle District Court on July 27 to get a date for sentence.
He faces a maximum of 25 years in jail.
