The Darwin Supreme Court was forced into a temporary lockdown on Thursday as supporters of Keith Kerinauia, the man found guilty of murdering 20-year-old Declan Laverty inside a BWS, expressed their anger at the sentence.
Keith Kerinauia will spend at least 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of murdering Darwin bottle shop worker Declan Laverty.
A jury found Mr Kerinauia guilty of the murder of Mr Laverty after an eight-day trial.
Mr Laverty was killed while working at the Airport Tavern bottle shop on March 19.
Supporters of Keith Kerinauia, 19, the young Aboriginal man found guilty of stabbing Laverty to death, cried out that the jury’s verdict was “racist” and unfair.
Meanwhile, Laverty’s mother, Samara, expressed her relief at the guilty verdict.
“He didn’t deserve this,” she said.
“He was just a 20-year-old kid at work and for that he died. Today we’ve got justice.”
Wearing a chain around her neck carrying her son’s ashes, Ms Laverty recalled the final text message her son sent her after he had been stabbed while working at the Darwin Airport Tavern on March 19 last year.
The father of the alleged killer of Declan Laverty says his son is the “victim of a racist system”, says Sky News host Andrew Bolt.
“He said that’s the effing main reason, that’s why all the kids are running amok, they’re just sick of the effing racism,” Mr Bolt said.
“So it’s the whites’ fault that they’re being stabbed?”
It said: “I love you mum. I’ve been stabbed.”
She said she called his phone and it answered and she could hear screaming but nobody talking.
“That was when I rang triple zero,” she said.
“I knew something really bad was going on.”
A few minutes later Declan’s father called to tell her their son was dead.
“The brutality of what he went through that night. You want to know that he didn’t suffer any pain but he died an agonising death,” she said.
Samara Laverty with her son Declan right. Picture: Facebook
“I’m so glad the jury could see that’s what happened.”
Kerinauia pleaded not guilty arguing he had acted in self defence.
The defence argued Laverty had taken a knife to work and had used it to lunge at Kerinauia before he stabbed him five times with a 25cm knife he had taken from his car.
The court was told Samara Laverty had told her son to take the knife to work.
“It wasn’t so much that I wanted him to carry a knife, I just wanted him to be safe,” she said outside the court.
“I had so much guilt. I felt for a long time that it was my fault.”
She now believes her son some would have died on that night, even if he hadn’t been carrying a knife.
The court precinct was locked down for up to five minutes after the verdict as Kerinauia’s supporters expressed their anger.
“It’s not fair,” one said.
Others cried out “racist”.
Defence barrister Jon Tippett KC said the jury’s verdict had to be respected and said he was unsure if there would be an appeal.
But he criticised the Northern Territory’s mandatory sentencing laws that will mean Kerinauia will spend at least 20 years in prison.
Mr Tippett said his client would have received a lesser sentence in NSW.
“We know mandatory sentencing doesn’t work,” he said.
Kerinauia will return to court for sentencing next Friday.