A DIGGERS Rest man has been found guilty of running over and killing his best friend before driving off after they argued about his drunken behaviour.
Gavin Dunne, 44, of Sunbury, died after being hit by a ute being driven on the wrong side of the road by Daniel Carletti on New Year’s Day two years ago.
On June 14, a Supreme Court jury found Carletti, 33, guilty of dangerous driving causing death, failing to stop after a fatal collision and failing to render assistance after a fatal collision.
The jury found Carletti not guilty of culpable driving causing death. Carletti was remanded in custody to reappear in court on August 9.
Crown prosecutor Daryl Brown had told the jury the two men had been arguing in a car park near the Marong Hotel on the Calder Highway west of Bendigo about 1am on New Year’s Day, 2011.
The court heard that Carletti had driven his car at Mr Dunne in order to scare him. Both men were taken to hospital, where the victim later died.
Defence counsel Christopher Dane told the court Carletti had been “automatistic” after being punched by Dunne and sustaining a head injury, adding that Carletti had no memory of the incident when police questioned him.
“If a man receives a blow sufficient to concuss him and cannot recall the incident of driving and has a continuing headache, is it possible that the incident of driving was done in an automatistic state? Yes,” he said.
Lawyers for Carletti applied for bail, but Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye denied the request on the grounds there were no ‘‘exceptional circumstances’’.
