Cassius Turvey: Killers face sentencing in WA Supreme Court, Brodie Palmer sentenced to life

A murdered Indigenous teenager who was chased into bushland and beaten to death was robbed of his life and promise in an act of brutality, a judge says.

Cassius Turvey, a Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after he was deliberately struck to the head in Perth’s eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022.

Jack Steven James Brearley, 24, and Brodie Lee Palmer, 30, were convicted in May of murdering the 15-year-old after a 12-week trial.

Brodie Palmer has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Cassius Turvey.

Justice Quinlan said that, other than Palmer’s conduct in court, there were no mitigating factors for the seriousness of his crimes.

The chief justice said Mr Palmer did not physically strike Cassius, and showed some restraint by interrupting Mr Brearley, who was hitting Cassius.

Mitchell Colin Forth, 27, who was also on trial in the West Australian Supreme Court for Cassius’s murder, was found guilty of manslaughter.

Chief Justice Peter Quinlan said the teenage victim showed great promise from a young age and was a natural-born leader with a sense of community that pointed to a bright future.

“Cassius Turvey was robbed of his life and of his promise ... all because you killed him, Mr Brearley,” he said on Friday as he delivered his sentencing remarks.

“You cut short Cassius Turvey’s life in an act of aggression, violence and brutality, which, regardless of the sentences I impose today, can never be made right.

“You, too, are responsible for his death, Mr Palmer and Mr Forth, in different ways.”

Justice Quinlan also addressed claims that the attack on Cassius was racially motivated, saying the killers used racial slurs to refer to him and other children he was with.

It was no surprise that an attack by a group of non-Indigenous adult men on a group of predominantly Aboriginal children using racial slurs that resulted in a boy’s death would have been interpreted as racially driven, he said.

“That fear is real and it is legitimate,” Justice Quinlan said.

But the convicted killers were not monsters; rather, they were humans informed by their life histories who had committed horrendous crimes, the judge said.

He also noted how the case had revealed the disturbing normalisation of violence in the community.

The victim’s mother, Mechelle Turvey, earlier said her son was a gentle giant who was unjustly taken from his family and his death “left a void that will never be filled”.

The trial heard Brearley delivered the fatal blows while “hunting for kids” because somebody had smashed his car windows.

Forth and Palmer were accused of aiding him in the common purpose, along with Aleesha Louise Gilmore, 23, who was acquitted of a murder charge.

The attack on Cassius followed a complex series of events that started on October 9 when Forth, Brearley, Gilmore and another man allegedly “snatched two kids off the street” before punching, kicking and stabbing one of them.

Four days later, Brearley and his co-accused allegedly armed themselves with metal poles pulled from shopping trolleys before climbing into Palmer’s ute and driving off to search for some youths.

About the same time, Cassius and a group of about 20 fellow students caught a bus to the same area to watch a fight being talked about on social media.

Brearley, Forth and Palmer intercepted them near a field, and Cassius and some other “terrified school kids” fled into bushland.

It was there that Brearley caught up with him before the teen was knocked to the ground and hit in the head with a metal pole, causing bleeding in his brain.

Justice Quinlan is due to deliver the sentences later on Friday.

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