A Wagga District Court jury has found a Mount Austin man not guilty of an armed robbery in which an Ashmont woman claimed to have been hit on the head with an ornamental sword.
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Duane Mark Ashton, 41, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to one charge of robbery with an offensive weapon of $1000 in cash, two mobile phones and a 'cosplay' sword modelled on the Final Fantasy video game.
Mr Ashton faced a trial that stretched over three days at Wagga Court House this week and members of the jury deliberated for just over an hour and a half on Friday morning before reaching their verdict.
Mr Ashton, sitting in the dock and dressed in a dark blue collared shirt, blinked rapidly and mouthed words when the jury foreman read out the verdict of not guilty.
The charge against Mr Ashton, now dismissed, was that he allegedly attended a 28-year-old woman's Ashmont home at 12:01 am on March 15 last year with his girlfriend and another female friend.
The resident claimed that Mr Ashton hit her with the handle of her sword, which had been on the bedroom floor, and demanded all her money and mobile phones from her and her male friend.
The Crown prosecutor pointed to CCTV footage from the home of Mr Ashton arriving at 12:01am and then leaving at 12:41am while carrying the sword, photographs of bruising to the resident's ear, and deleted text messages recovered from Mr Ashton's phone.
Mr Ashton and his defence team did not deny he was at the home, but Mr Ashton told police that he walked to the location only to buy drugs and the resident gave him the sword as it was scratched and worthless.
Under questioning from Mr Ashton's barrister, Roland Keller, the resident of the house admitted to selling drugs at times but denied selling to Mr Ashton.
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In his closing statement, Mr Keller highlighted what he said were "gaps" in the CCTV footage that the resident had provided to police and said a motion-activated camera in her bedroom should have captured any robbery but no such footage had been produced.
Mr Keller also told the jury that there were contradictions between the resident's statement and her court testimony as to where she got the $1000 in cash that she claimed was stolen.
In court on Friday, Judge Gordon Lerve thanked the jury members for their service.
Outside Wagga Court House, Mr Keller told The Daily Advertiser "the rule of law applies in NSW".
"There have been jury trials in NSW for 200 years now and the system still works," he said.
Mr Ashton, who had been in custody at Junee jail, was to be released on Friday following the verdict.
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