A man who drove around with a young mum’s body in the back of his van before dumping it in a creek has been found not guilty of playing a part in her grisly murder.
Justin Dilosa, 37, pleaded not guilty to murdering Danielle Easey at a house at Narara on the Central Coast in August 2019.
Following a month-long Supreme Court trial, Dilosa was on Thursday found not guilty by a jury of taking part in Ms Easey’s savage murder alongside his former partner Carol McHenry.
“Not guilty,” a jury foreman declared to the court following two days of deliberation.
During the trial there was no dispute that Dilosa attempted to cover up Ms Easey’s murder and dumped her body in a creek after driving around with her corpse in the back of his van for a week.
He pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact, however had claimed that he did not take part in her killing, accusing McHenry of bashing and stabbing Ms Easey to death.
The court was told Dilosa will face sentence proceedings for the accessory charge later this year.
Ms Easey’s badly decomposing body was discovered by passing motorists on August 31, 2019 – over a week after she was killed.
Her body was stuffed into a chemical suit and wrapped in a doona and plastic before Dilosa dumped her at Cockle Creek, near Newcastle.
There was no dispute that Dilosa was present at the Narara home on the evening of August 17, when Ms Easey was killed.
However, according to his version of events, he went outside to sleep in his van and was not present when Ms Easey was murdered by his ex-partner inside McHenry’s bedroom.
Mr Dilosa said that on one occasion when he was driving, McHenry began crying and told him: “Jay I’m never going to see the kids again. I don’t know what I’ve done. She had to go. I need your help.”
He said that she showed him a grocery bag containing a knife and hammer and later that night, he threw the bag into a bonfire at the house of a friend, Jeremy Princehorn.
Mr Dilosa said he later returned to the Narara house with McHenry and Mr Princehorn and when he entered the bedroom he found a “lump” in the middle of the bed.
“I walked in around the bed, pulled back the cover … I lifted Danielle’s hand,” Mr Dilosa said.
He said he saw Ms Easey’s body lying face down and noticed that the back of her head was bloodied.
Crown prosecutor John Stanhope labelled Dilosa’s narrative as “unbelievable”.
The court heard that Ms Easey suffered four blows to the head, causing multiple fractures and lacerations, a further blow to the side of the head and another to her fingers.
She was stabbed in the back four times, once behind her ear and twice in the arm.
The Crown prosecution argued Dilosa would not have taken part in the cover-up of a horrific crime unless he was involved in the actual murder.
The court also heard that Dilosa and McHenry had broken up many months before Ms Easey was killed.
However defence barrister Angus Webb has argued Dilosa had residual care for McHenry and it’s plausible he helped her to dispose of Ms Easey’s body.
“The relationship, from his perspective, had an ongoing aspect,” Mr Webb said.
“They don’t have to be seeing each other … that doesn’t mean some switch is turned off and that’s the end, let’s move on and nothing else of relevance will ever happen between us ever again.”
Mr Webb also told the jury that Dilosa had “no motive” to want to kill.
McHenry was last year found guilty over her role in Ms Easey’s murder and was last month sentenced to 22 years and six months in jail.
She was given a 15-year, six-month non-parole period meaning she will be eligible for release in March 2035.
