Date of Incident: 28-2-1998
Date of Conviction: 7-5-2006
Exoneration Date: 6-7-2007
Charge: Wilful murder
Conviction: Murder
Sentence: Life Sentence
Sentence Served: 3 years
Contributing Causes:
Compensation: Not yet
It was not until over six years after the death of Phillip Walsham that Salvatore Fazzari, Carlos Pereiras, Jose Martinez and a fourth man were charged with his wilful murder.
The three men spent over 2.5 years in prison, over half a million dollars in legal fees and endured two trials. At the second trial the jury convicted the men of the lesser charge of murder. The men were sentenced to life imprisonment and were serving a minimum of ten year sentence until the West Australian Supreme Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that the evidence was based entirely on speculation and could not support a conviction.
The men co-operated with police as soon as the incident occurred in 1998 and were told at the very early stages of the investigation that they were cleared from suspicion. The status of the investigation as at 2004 (six years after the death) was unchanged since 1998 however the men were still charged.
