Cassius Turvey murder trial: Witness tells jury accused shaved hair because he ‘didn’t want to get caught’

Jack Brearley, the man accused of delivering the fatal blow that led to Cassius Turvey’s death, shaved his head hours after the attack because he “didn’t want to get caught”, a court has been told. That’s what Tyler Gilmore, the brother of one of Mr Brearley’s co-accused, Aleesha Gilmore, told the WA Supreme Court as part of his evidence in the murder trial. Mr Brearley, Ms Gilmore, Mitchell Forth and Brodie Palmer are all accused of murdering the Indigenous teenager in October 2022. Cassius, 15, died 10 days after he was chased into bushland and hit with a shopping trolley pole in Middle Swan. The four defendants deny the charge. Mr Gilmore also claimed in his evidence to seeing only Mr Palmer breaking shopping trolley handles off hours before the savage assault, but later admitted to “guessing” what he might have seen. In his testimony, Mr Gilmore told the court around 10pm on the day Cassius was attacked he saw his sister cutting Mr Brearley’s hair at their home. When asked by prosecutor Ben Stanwix SC why he was cutting it, he said the 23-year-old told him “he didn’t want to get caught”, adding that the haircut was “halfway finished and then the police rocked up and stormed the house”. Under cross examination from Mr Brearley’s lawyer Simon Watters, Mr Gilmore agreed Mr Brearley told him that he didn’t want to get caught or found by the people who “wanted to smash up the house”. The trial has previously been told in the hours before the assault on Cassius, threats to attack the Gilmore home had been made prompting the quartet to go searching for those that made the threats. Mr Gilmore testified that before the four left in Mr Palmer’s black 4WD, he saw them “getting weapons and stuff”. He then claimed he saw Mr Palmer breaking at least one shopping trolley pole off in the alleyway and carrying about “two or three” before they left. He also told the court he saw Mr Palmer with other weapons. “Pretty sure he had, like, knuckle dusters in his car,” Mr Gilmore said in his evidence to Mr Stanwix. When asked if he saw anyone else holding the poles, he said no. In cross-examination, Mr Watters asked Mr Gilmore if he was friends with Mr Brearley, which he replied he was not. He then agreed that when he testified that he only saw Mr Palmer breaking the handles off the shopping trolley it wasn’t because he wanted to help Mr Brearley. “That’s what I saw,” Mr Gilmore said. But when pressed by Christian Porter, Mr Palmer’s lawyer, if he was “guessing” about what he claims he saw in the alleyway Mr Gilmore admitted he was. “Brodie was was in the alleyway, though,” Mr Gilmore said. “But you’re guessing at what happened in the alleyway, that’s correct isn’t it,” Mr Porter fired back. “Well, that’s what you - if you’re trying to say that yeah,” Mr Gilmore responded. “Is your answer to the question ‘You’re guessing at what happened in the alleyway, yes?,” Mr Porter then asked. “Yes,” Mr Gilmore replied. He also admitted to only seeing Mr Palmer with the poles in his hands while they were in the lounge room before they left the house. Earlier, Mr Gilmore admitted to lying in the police statement he gave just before the trial in which he said he wasn’t sure whether Mr Brearley was in the alleyway breaking the trolley poles. He also admitted to lying in his first police statement in which he told police he did not see any of the four accused take anything with them when they left the house before the attack on Cassius. Mr Porter then accused Mr Gilmore of lying at the time to protect his sister and Mr Brearley to which he replied yes. The trial continues.