Former housemate jailed after violent Mt Austin clash over furniture

Sharly Marshall, 22, has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in the Wagga Local Court after the dispute blew up and she assaulted a former housemate at a Mount Austin home in August 2023.

Documents tendered to the court by the Department of Public Prosecutions revealed Marshall previously lived at the property with the victim and moved her personal belongings and a small amount of furniture there in mid-2023.

However, after barely a couple of months, she was staying at the property less and less as her relationship with the housemate soured, and she was eventually asked to leave and not return.

During August 2023, Marshall made contact with the victim on a number of occasions to arrange to collect her belongings - which culminated in the events that unfolded on the night of August 15, 2023.

About 8pm, August 15, the victim and Marshall communicated via text about Marshall coming over to collect her property.

But by 9.15pm, Marshall still hadn't arrived, so the victim and another person put her belongings out in the front yard with the victim messaging Marshall to say what they had done.

But Marshall was far from impressed and sent a threatening message warning of consequences.

"Ha ha, you'll get a rude shock in a sec and it won't be from the cops," she messaged back.

About 9.50pm that night, the victim saw a ute pull up before Marshall and another woman hopped out and walked across her front yard.

The victim came out to face the pair, but Marshall was immediately aggressive towards her and threw a punch at her head.

Marshall and the victim then became involved in a physical altercation on the footpath out the front of the property.

As the pair were wrestling, the victim collided with the house.

The facts reveal the altercation "was brief, not more than a minute" and ended after a man came out and separated the pair.

About this time, the victim realised blood was running down her neck and that she was cut, and asked for help to call an ambulance.

But Marshall and the other woman managed to escape, hopped into the getaway vehicle and drove off.

Police and NSW Ambulance later attended the scene and the victim was taken to Wagga Base Hospital where she received stitches for a 6cm-long cut on her neck and two cuts to the top of her head.

Just hours later, about 1.40am on August 16, police arrested Marshall, however she was suffering a mental health episode at the time, so she was admitted for treatment at the Wagga Base Hospital for treatment for several days.

After that, Marshall was taken into police custody and charged over the incident. She has remained in custody on remand ever since.

In May, Marshall pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

At her sentencing in the Wagga Local Court on June 5, Marshall's defence lawyer Ben Curnow noted his client pleaded guilty to the charge and said she had entered the plea "as soon as possible".

Mr Curnow pointed out Marshall "was mentally unwell at the time" of the incident.

Addressing Marshall's actions, he said it "appears Marshall was provoked because the property and those of her baby were put out on the street".

Mr Curnow said this was relevant when considering her "moral culpability" for the offending.

However, he conceded there were "some aggravating features" of the case, not least that the offence took place at the home of the victim, and that Marshall was on conditional liberty - an intensive corrections order - at the time of the incident.

While conceding that the threshold for imprisonment had been "crossed", Mr Curnow pointed out it was a "very short incident and didn't involve a significant amount of violence despite the significant injuries".

The court heard Marshall has drug and alcohol issues, and Mr Curnow argued her "deprived background" was tied to her addiction and said this should be taken into account.

He argued Marshall should remain on an ICO and serve it in the community.

"Any further full time prison [sentence]... would not assist [my client] and produce a risky offender on her release," Mr Curnow said.

However the crown prosecutor disagreed, noting Marshall was already on an ICO.

"There was a degree of planning in this, with threats made prior [to the assault]," the prosecutor said.

He pointed out the "serious" nature of the injuries and said while the "altercation itself was quite short, it goes towards the high end of objective seriousness".

Addressing the issue of provocation, the prosecutor argued it was "not an inappropriate action" for the victim to have put the items outside given it had been organised for "some time" that Marshall would come and collect her belongings.

"[The victim] has her own life to live... even if it does amount to some degree of provocation," the prosecutor said.

He added that while "the prosecution can't prove the existence of a weapon" it was "somewhat unclear" how the injuries "resulted from this violence".

"I submit that full time custody is the only option in these circumstances," he said.

Magistrate Rebecca Hosking noted the submissions and said "specific deterrence is important".

Magistrate Hosking noted the aggravating features of the case and that the victim required 10 stitches following the assault.

She concluded that given the circumstances, the only option was imprisonment.

Addressing Marshall - who appeared via video link - Magistrate Hosking told her, "community safety can't be assured by you serving your sentence on an ICO".

But taking into account how long Marshall had been held on remand, and finding there were some special circumstances in the case, Magistrate Hosking sentenced her to 10 months in custody, backdated to August 16, 2023.

As such, Marshall will be eligible for release from custody on June 15, after which she will serve the remaining 8 months of her sentence on parole.