A 21-year-old stabbed during an alleged drug deal turned robbery made a bad decision that cost him his life, say his heartbroken parents.
William Swinbourne was robbed and fatally stabbed with a kitchen carving knife in a car park on the Gold Coast in March.
The scene of the fatal stabbing.Credit: Nine News
Police alleged he arrived at a Hope Island shopping centre to supply drugs to another man.
Kai Stacey Reinhardt, one of two men charged with murdering Swinbourne, was denied bail in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday.
It was a “fantastic outcome” that Reinhardt would not be out on the Gold Coast where Swinbourne’s family live, parents Steve and Alison said outside court.
“He was a good kid, hard worker, [who] made a bad decision and it cost him his life,” Steve Swinbourne told reporters.
“We’ve lost a son, my daughters have lost their brother.”
Reinhardt allegedly helped plan and arrange the robbery by communicating with Swinbourne to bring him to the place where he was killed, Justice Thomas Bradley said.
The crown case included a text message in which the co-accused told Reinhardt, “I”m going to do this lick” ahead of the meeting with Swinbourne being arranged, the court was told.
The extent of Reinhardt’s knowledge of his co-accused’s alleged plans and beliefs about what would occur when Swinbourne arrived were among the likely issues in court proceedings, Justice Bradley said in refusing bail.
“It is possible to say that on the material before the court the applicant’s involvement in the events of that day were at the least very foolish.
“And they were likely affected by the circumstances of him having been using illicit substances and licit substances over the preceding hours.”
Bradley found bail conditions proposed by defence barrister Jeffrey Hunter were not sufficient to release Reinhardt from custody.