Shakur Sutton, 18, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court Koori Court to aggravated carjacking, as well as summary charges of publishing material showing an offence has been committed, driving at a dangerous speed, driving unlicensed, and committing an indictable offence while on bail.
Prosecutor Alana Noone told the court Sutton and a 15-year-old co-accused exchanged texts about organising the Uber on September 20 last year, including one where Sutton told the other boy to “make sure it’s a decent car so we can put him in the boot”.
While in the Uber in Shepparton, Sutton sent the other boy a Snapchat video of himself holding a small kitchen knife while sitting behind the driver.
He checked the boy also had a knife and discussed their plan of putting the driver in the boot of the car, telling him, “I’ve got a kitchy on me if he tries to do anything”.
When the Uber driver pulled up to a Shepparton house at 3.30pm to collect the other boy, the boy allegedly came out holding a large knife, opened the driver’s door and demanded the driver get out, Ms Noone said.
At the same time, Sutton placed a knife against the victim’s throat from the back seat, telling him, “get out of the car or I’ll kill you”, Ms Noone said.
The driver pushed the boy away, and felt Sutton dragging the knife back and forth as if trying to cut his neck.
The driver manager to drive 150m up the road before the boy caught up to them and got in the back seat.
Sutton told the victim to “get out or I’ll kill you” before the man got out of the car.
The driver held on to the door to stop them driving off before the boy allegedly brandished the knife and forced the victim away, before the pair sped off, Ms Noone said.
The court heard the pair drove along the Goulburn Valley Hwy to Seymour, with Sutton driving erratically, on the wrong side of the road, and drinking alcohol.
At one point, Sutton filmed himself driving at 170km/h and posted the video on Instagram with rap music and the caption “who says we ain’t active”.
An hour after the carjacking, an off-duty police officer in Seymour spotted the Nissan Pulsar, with two flat tyres, being driven erratically in Seymour.
The car was parked near the Seymour train station, and Sutton and the other boy fled on foot before being caught and arrested by police after a short chase.
The court heard Sutton was also unlicensed.
Ms Noone said the driver thought he was going to be killed.
In court, Sutton was chastised by an elder during the sentencing conversation, where she told him he could have killed the driver.
“Taking another man’s life is not a cool thing, We’re not in America, You are not a gangster,” she said.
The carjacking offence requires a minimum mandatory jail term of three years without parole, unless compelling, exceptional, substantial and rare reasons can be shown.
Sutton’s defence barrister Briana Proud put to the court that these reasons could be proven by a combination of factors including his young age, his participation in Koori Court, his “adverse childhood”, that he had never had help from Youth Justice before, and the fact he had diagnosis of severe post-traumatic stress disorder, autism, ADHD, generalised anxiety disorder and stimulant misuse disorder.
She asked for a youth justice centre order, instead of prison and a non-parole period.
Ms Noone, however, said Sutton did not meet the threshold for anything other than mandatory prison, as it was “an almost impossible hurdle”, which she said he did not meet.
“Ride-share drivers are entitled to feel safe in their work,” Ms Noone said.
“When things happen like that, one can’t underestimate the impact when they have to go back to work.”
Sutton will be sentenced in the matter in June.
16°C