A farmer who shot dead a father of three he wrongly accused of stealing avocados and sheep from his sprawling rural property has been jailed for life.
John Gerard Benny Della Franca, 67, shot Tony Ditri, 40, twice at his farm in Pemberton, 300 kilometres southwest of Perth, on August 27, 2021.
On Friday, the Supreme Court of Western Australia sentenced Della Franca to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 20 years.
The farmer murdered the landscaper after becoming increasingly paranoid that locals were stealing produce, sheep and cattle from his property.
Della Franca confronted the landscaper as he was emptying grass clippings into a public landfill across the street from his farm.
Mr Ditri denied the allegations before Della Franca pulled out a shotgun and shot him once in the chest, arm and again in the back.
He took the landscaper’s body to his farm before returning to the landfill site to tie several fishing nets to the back of Mr Ditri’s car before driving it into the River Warren.
Della Franca intended to make it appear that Ditri had “disappeared in a fishing accident,” state prosecutor Brett Tooker told the court.
John Gerard Benny Della Franca, 67 (pictured), was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the Western Australian Supreme Court on Friday for the murder of Tony Ditri.
However, the car got stuck, forcing Della Franca to walk 15 kilometers back to his farm, where he put Ditri’s body in a bag of fertilizer, put the bag in an apple box and disposed of it in an unattended barn he used for sheep.
The court heard that Della Franca went into the woods and dug a large hole three feet deep to bury the body.
Despite being arrested on August 28 and later admitting to shooting Ditri, Della Franca repeatedly told police he had dumped the victim’s body in the Warren River.
After a large-scale search, Mr. Ditri’s son noticed fresh soil on top of the hole Della Franca had dug on September 15.
He alerted the police, who discovered the landscaper’s body.
Della Franca had previously been charged with Ditri’s murder four days after he was last seen on September 1, 2021.
Mr Ditri (pictured right) denied stealing when Della Franca confronted him on 27 August 2021 while he was emptying grass clippings at a local landfill.
Mr Tooker told the court that Della Franca had shown no remorse for his actions.
“He was only thinking about himself,” the prosecutor said.
“There is no evidence of genuine remorse. He only cares about himself.”
Judge Bruno Fiannaca accepted that Della Franca did not confront Ditri with the intention of killing him, but decided to shoot him after he denied having stolen.
The judge said victim impact statements had revealed the landscaper was a much-missed husband and a much-loved father of three young children.
“They regret the fact that he (Mr Ditri) will be missed as a husband, father, son, uncle and brother,” Judge Fiannaca said.
‘(Your wife) is devastated and struggles to cope with the world every day. She is still angry and her children suffer daily because of what you have done.’
Della Franca will be eligible for parole in 20 years, after he turns 87.