A former teenage drag racing champion killed his sister’s abusive boyfriend “out of panic and fear”, a judge was told.
After stabbing his victim Jesse Tattersall twice, Tyler King told his sister, “No one is going to hit you again, no one is going to hurt you again” before stabbing Tattersall a third time.
Prosecutor Brendan Queenan told Newcastle High Court on Friday that King was showing his sister Tenille how he intended to kill Tattersall for what he had been doing to her.
But defense attorney Peter Krisenthal argued that King would not have allowed Tattersall to leave the duplex and try to get help from a neighbor after being stabbed if he had intended to kill him.
Krisenthal said King, 27, of Budgewoi, who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Tattersall, 33, in Hamlyn Terrace on September 8, 2022, was remorseful and understood the impact his actions had had on the family of his victim.
“The offensive was reactionary, born of panic and fear,” the defense lawyer said.
Prosecutor Brendan Queenan told Newcastle High Court on Friday that Tynan King (pictured) was showing his sister Tenille how he intended to kill Jesse Tattersall for what he had been doing to her.
King, 27, of Budgewoi, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Tattersall on September 8, 2022.
“There was, on any objective analysis, hostility and volatility on the part of the deceased and his behavior was unpredictable and aggressive.”
Krisenthal said King had been a talented drag racer who left school and traveled abroad to compete at the age of 15 on a one-year contract, but was not as successful as he had hoped.
He said King returned to Australia and his life spiraled out of control when he became addicted to drugs.
Tattersall, a father-of-two, was murdered when he arrived at Tenille’s home shortly after 8.10pm, after she told him her brother was upset that she had chosen Tattersall over her family.
Tattersall kicked open the front door, grabbed Tenille by the back of the neck and punched her in the face.
He began dragging Tenille across the living room when King separated him from his sister.
Tattersall slammed King’s head against a plaster wall and told him, “You should see what I do to (Tenille) in the bedroom.”
King grabbed a knife from the kitchen as the pair fought and stabbed Tattersall three times as Tenille tried to stop him.
Tattersall stumbled out of the house and collapsed in front of a neighbor’s house.
The paramedics were unable to revive him.
King and his then-girlfriend, Maddison York, called an Uber after fleeing, but were later found in Gorokan.
York has pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder.
Tattersall’s mother, Donna, said in a victim impact statement that King had no right to take the life of her much loved and incredibly precious son.
Mrs Tattersall said she arrived at the scene and saw her first-born son “lying on the cold concrete covered in blood with several paramedics trying to save his life”.
“These images haunt my thoughts as do the images of my son lying on a cold steel autopsy table.”
Judge Natalie Adams will sentence King and York on May 23 and ordered that York be released on bail after spending 19 months in prison following her arrest.
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