While six months pregnant and caring for two children, a young mother faced an unsettling situation when her four-year-old stumbled upon a gun concealed in their sofa.
Kiara Ferguson, 27, swiftly took the improvised weapon from her daughter and confronted her partner of a decade, who was in the bathroom at the time.
“How many times have I told you about this?” she questioned Adam Winmar, the father of her children.
Winmar had previously tried to fire the homemade gun without success, yet this time it was loaded.
Ferguson dropped the weapon, a makeshift 12-gauge spring pipe gun, onto the bathroom’s tiled floor.
Tragically, the gun discharged upon impact with the tiles, striking Ferguson below her eye, as described by Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher.
Winmar called triple zero and began CPR, however Ferguson could not be saved and she died in the bathroom of their Shepparton home on April 1, 2023.
Justice Croucher said Winmar’s storage of the gun inside a crevice of their couch in the lounge room, which was easily accessible to their two children, had endangered their lives as well as Ferguson’s.
“It was a profoundly stupid thing to do,” he said, as he jailed him for three months on Friday.
“Any loaded gun is to be treated as potentially dangerous, especially so when young children might get their hands on it.”
Winmar was initially charged with a firearm offence and pleaded guilty in the Koori Court, however prosecutors upgraded it to negligent manslaughter.
Before a trial was due to begin, the prosecution abandoned the most serious charge and Winmar pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering life and possessing a firearm as a prohibited person.
He was given a sentence indication of three months in prison followed by a 12-month community corrections order.
The judge imposed this sentence, despite hearing on Friday morning that Winmar was continuing to abuse drugs as recently as this week.
Prosecutor Jim Shaw said Winmar admitted he was using methamphetamine every day and consuming GHB four to five days a week.
Winmar also had a lengthy criminal history and continued to offend after Ferguson’s death, including committing assault and choking offences for which he was given a four-month jail term in April.
After completing this term, and while on a community corrections order, he committed an affray in public with others while holding a meat cleaver, for which he received another three months’ jail.
But Justice Croucher ultimately found Winmar’s experience of losing his partner, not being allowed to see his children and his “extreme guilt and devastation” over what he did, were its own form of punishment.
“I am satisfied that Mr Winmar is extremely unlikely ever again to have a loaded gun at his premises, let alone to store a gun in such a manner,” the judge said.
Winmar was taken into custody after the hearing to begin serving his three-month prison term.
Upon his release he must perform 200 hours of community work and undergo treatment for drug and alcohol abuse at a residential facility.
For support contact 13YARN 13 92 76 or Lifeline 13 11 14.
