A third man, Nicholas James Torralba, was given a directed verdict of acquittal. He was remanded in custody pending a review of his case.
Appleby was found not guilty of murder, but the jury was unable to reach a majority verdict on the alternate charge of manslaughter and was discharged. He received a mandatory sentence of life in prison with 1048 days declared as time served, and will serve at least 20 years. Markovski was found guilty of murder on Wednesday and has been in custody since handing himself in two days after the attack. "You did not hesitate, even for a second, to simply pause and threaten the defenceless man with your knife," Justice Peter Applegarth said. Appleby had been in a fight with the unarmed Mr Frescon before a masked Markovski entered the room and stabbed his victim "within seconds" of arriving, the court was told on Friday.
#LIFE ON TOP SISTER ACT TRIAL#
Evidence during the trial suggested motivation for the visit was to get more drugs on credit, and failing that, by robbery. Through various projects, chapters, and the support structure of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia strives to bring about a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Markovski and a friend, Thomas Appleby, had been drinking and using drugs before travelling from the Gold Coast to Mr Frescon's suburban Brisbane home in January 2019, the court was told. Wikimedia is a global movement whose mission is to bring free educational content to the world. You did that to him, you did this to our family," she wrote. "I shouldnt have found him like that, he should still be here with us. Many people loved Robert, and more than 800 mourners were at his funeral, Ms Wilson said.
#LIFE ON TOP SISTER ACT FULL#
"You knew that whoever found Robert would find him the way you left him, that they would find him without life, murdered in his own home." She described her little brother as full of life, quick witted and funny, with charisma that drew people to him.
"I knew within my heart that something was wrong," Ms Wilson wrote, recounting the drive to check on her brother after he failed to answer his phone. Markovski sat with his head down in the Brisbane Supreme Court dock on Friday as prosecutor Mark Whitbread read the statement from Mr Frescon's sister, Tania Wilson. There were tears in the packed gallery as the widely felt repercussions of Damian Marko Markovski's decision to stab Robert Charles Frescon, 33, were detailed in a victim impact statement. A big sister's horrific discovery of her brother's body after he was stabbed in the neck and left to die has been recounted in court as the 26-year-old offender was sentenced to life in jail.