The Supreme Court has sentenced Alexander Villaluna for the murder of Keith Collins, and for wounding with intent to cau
Judgment Summary Supreme Court New South Wales
R v Villaluna [2017] NSWSC 1390 Beech-Jones J The Supreme Court has sentenced Alexander Villaluna for the murder of Keith Collins, and for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm upon Jovi Pilapil, at Hornsby on 30 March 2016. The offender entered a plea of guilty to both counts on 2 June 2017. He has been sentenced to an overall term of 40 years imprisonment, comprising an overall nonparole period of 30 years and an additional term of 10 years. The offender was in a relationship with Ms Pilapil. The agreed facts record that he was violent and controlling towards her during the relationship, which ended in November 2015. The offender’s violent behaviour continued after he left the family home, to the extent that Ms Pilapil obtained an interim Apprehended Domestic Violence Order on 19 January 2016. He continued to email her, send her flowers anonymously, and threaten her. On 3 March 2016, the offender purchased a hunting knife and camouflage backpack. In the meantime, Ms Pilapil began using the dating application, Tinder, through which she started communicating with Mr Collins. Ms Pilapil and Mr Collins organised to meet for the first time at a shopping centre on 30 March 2016. On that afternoon, the offender left his work, carrying the camouflage backpack he had purchased. He then proceeded to question their children, and call Ms Pilapil’s place of work, to find out where she was. At around 9pm, he drove to the shopping centre, and entered the restaurant where Ms Pilapil and Mr Collins were seated. The offender approached their table, and calmly began to speak to Mr Collins. As Mr Collins stood and turned to face him, the offender began vigorously to stab his lower abdomen with the hunting knife. Mr Collins fell to the ground. The offender then stepped around the table and grabbed Ms Pilapil, stabbing her in the breast and the arm. He then reapproached Mr Collins, knelt on his chest, and drove the knife repeatedly into his torso. Ms Pilapil ran from the restaurant, and managed to reach a nearby shop where she received first aid. The offender initially followed her, but then returned to the restaurant where he sat next to Mr Collins’s body and remained until a police officer arrived. The Court considered the offender’s history of violence towards Ms Pilapil, as well as his belief that he owned her, and found beyond reasonable doubt that his actions were premeditated and planned. The Court was satisfied that the attack was not spontaneous, but rather the result of the offender’s plan to kill, without hesitation, any man showing a romantic interest in his ex-partner. The Court found that the offender’s crimes were well above the middle of the range of objective seriousness for both offences. The Court referred to the offender’s personal circumstances, including his troubled upbringing in the Philippines, but found that they were entitled to little weight in an overall assessment of the appropriate sentence. The Court This summary has been prepared for general information only. It is not intended to be a substitute for the judgment of the Court or to be used in any later consideration of the Court’s judgment.
accepted that the offender had no prior convictions but, given his abuse of Ms Pilapil, did not accept that he was of good character. The Court did not accept that he was unlikely to reoffend or that he had good prospects of rehabilitation. The Court was satisfied that, far from demonstrating genuine remorse, the offender continued to exhibit anger and self-pity. The Court determined that the offender’s sentence should be discounted by 15% on account of his guilty plea. The Court also found that the sentence for the two offences should be partly concurrent and partly cumulative. For the wounding of Ms Pilapil the offender was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 9 years. For the murder of Mr Collins, the offender was sentenced to 34 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 24 years.
This summary has been prepared for general information only. It is not intended to be a substitute for the judgment of the Court or to be used in any later consideration of the Court’s judgment.
