David Andrew Mapp: Man who killed elderly mother Colleen Wilson with pot plant jailed for 21 years

A man who threw a pot plant at his 82-year-old mother and then pawned her belongings while she lay dead on the floor has been jailed for 21 years.

David Andrew Mapp lobbed the unusual weapon at Colleen Wilson during an argument at her home in Tumbi Umbi on the NSW Central Coast in July 2022.

The 59-year-old was experiencing heroin withdrawals when he made the rash decision to pick up the 15-kilogram pot filled with soil and a partial brick.

After Ms Wilson’s death on July 28, he pawned her television and whipper snipper for $200, funds he then used to buy heroin.

NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison acknowledged this behaviour was not classically associated with remorse but he was not satisfied Mapp intended to kill his mother.

“It was not premeditated or planned, being a spontaneous response from loss of control,” he said on Thursday.

Mapp had a historically difficult relationship resulting from his 45-year drug addiction, Justice Harrison said.

“The offence arose in the emotionally fraught and troubled environment of a home where he was tolerated, but not particularly welcome,” he said.

The judge also accepted Mapp’s childhood was marked by domestic violence at the hands of his alcoholic father and emotional deprivation.

During his trial, the jury heard Mapp told police he tried to revive his mother for about eight hours before calling triple zero.

When emergency services arrived, Ms Wilson was lying on the floor underneath a red blanket with blood and soil surrounding her.

Janice Fowler had attempted to call Ms Wilson’s phone multiple times on the day of the murder.

She did not know her sister was already dead.

“To my sister, Colleen Wilson ... you were taken in an act of greed,” she wrote in a victim impact statement read to the court.

“What happened to you was a selfish and unimaginable way to die.”

A jury found Mapp guilty of Ms Wilson’s murder in October 2024.

His earlier guilty plea to manslaughter was knocked back by prosecutors.

Mapp’s barrister Sarah Talbert previously argued the offence was spontaneous and impulsive, as evident in his choice of weapon.

The incident was a culmination of factors that built tension in their relationship over many years rather than a plan to obtain money for drugs, Ms Talbert said.

She pointed to previous incidents where her client had been in need of funds and had not assaulted his mother.

Ms Wilson was previously forced to pay $700 to get her TV back after her son pawned it.

But crown prosecutor Carl Young argued Mapp was fuelled by the desire to feed his heroin addiction and intended to kill his mother.

“There were ways to disable his mother that did not include a 15-kilogram pot plant to the head,” Mr Young had told the court.

Justice Harrison jailed Mapp for 21 years, backdating the sentence to the date of his arrest in July 2022.

His non-parole period of 15 years will expire in 2037.

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