Shooter learns fate over death of young father and family friend
A man has been jailed for more than seven years over a shooting that killed a family friend and sent a quiet area into an emergency lockdown.
Jacob John Dwyer, 37, learned his fate over the death of father and once-promising cricketer James Peter Deering, 32, on Monday.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Jacob Dwyer sentenced over fatal Wooroloo shooting.
Deering was shot in the head in Wooroloo, on Perth's eastern fringes in November 2023, and was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital where he died the next day.
Dwyer was charged with murder but on the day he was due to stand trial in the WA Supreme Court earlier this month he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
During sentencing, the court was told Deering had been kidnapped over a drug debt and driven at gunpoint in a car with three men to Dwyer's property in an attempt to extort money from the latter.
Once at the property, a gun was discharged as a threat before Dwyer returned fire with a homemade shotgun, fatally injuring Deering, the court was told.
Justice Amanda Forrester said that while she accepts Dwyer did not mean to kill his victim, the fact he chose to discharge a firearm displayed gross criminal negligence.
Two of the men in the car with Deering had links to an outlaw motorcycle gang, the court was told.
'These gangsters have come to his property to threaten him and to obtain money when his pregnant wife and his mother were in the house alone,' defence lawyer Mark Trowell said outside court. Jacob Dwyer, left, has been sentenced over the death of James Deering, pictured right. Credit: 7NEWS Defence lawyer Mark Trowell said said Dwyer 'did not intend to kill' Deering. Credit: 7NEWS
Trowell said Dwyer 'did not intend to kill' Deering.
'In fact, the deceased was a friend of his wife, a friend of the family,' Trowell said.
Deering's father read aloud a devastating impact statement on Monday.
'When I lost James ... immense sadness took over,' he said.
'The suffocation (was) compounded as I watched his children in so much pain. I just miss him constantly.'
Dwyer was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison but is eligible for parole in five.
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