Face of Nation : A California Gully man has admitted to participating in a carjacking that left a woman in fear for her safety. Matthew Mark McMahon, 25, pleaded guilty in the County Court on Wednesday to carjacking, trafficking gamma butyrolactane, trafficking methamphetamine, theft, and unlawful assault. McMahon was involved in a car jacking at Eaglehawk early on the morning of October 25 last year.
During the incident, McMahon took the keys out of the ignition of the car, before getting in the passenger seat and ordering a co-offender, Ebony Murphy, to get in. The owner of the car feared for her safety, and her passenger was also injured in the ordeal. The vehicle was driven to a Long Gully service station, where McMahon got out and filled it with $96.80 worth of petrol. He smiled at the attendant but got back in the car without paying. The stolen vehicle was located the next day and forensic evidence linked it to McMahon.
McMahon was later arrested and his phone was seized. On both his phone and Murphy’s, police found messages indicating attempts to sell gamma butyrolactane, or GBL. There were also messages on McMahon’s phone related to selling methamphetamine.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the owner of the stolen car said her mental health and confidence in herself had declined since the crime, and she was unable to go out and enjoy her usual activities. Defence counsel Chris Terry said his client made an early guilty plea, was still young and had the support of his family. Mr Terry said McMahon had used drugs but the 275 days he had spent in custody forced him into sobriety, which provided a platform for him to hopefully re-engage in society.
He said McMahon had already served well over double the time his co-offender Murphy spent in custody. The court heard Murphy was sentenced in March to 66 days’ imprisonment and an 18-month community corrections order after pleading guilty to trafficking, carjacking and theft.
The sentencing judge noted she played a “limited” role in the carjacking and the trafficking was at the lower end. Mr Terry said there was no significant premeditation in relation to the carjacking and his client was not profiting greatly from trafficking – the charges arose from the text messages on his phone and there was no evidence of the quantity of drugs involved.
He asked his client be sentenced to imprisonment with a community corrections order, although this was opposed by prosecutor David Cordy. Judge David Brookes accepted McMahon was a low-level dealer, but was still part of a system that was a scourge in the community.
“He is a victim of the ice epidemic, but he’s also creating victims,” Judge Brookes said, noting he had to think about protection of the community. Judge Brooke had McMahon assessed for a community corrections order, but adjourned sentencing to a later date.
