NSW: Woman screamed for life before stabbing murder: court
By Vincent Morello and Ehssan Veiszadeh24 Apr 2009 1:24 PM
SYDNEY, April 24 AAP - Upset about a drug deal, Steven John Wicks repeatedly stabbed a woman with a bread knife after consuming a cocktail of drugs and alcohol.
Gayle Wales, 37, was knifed in the throat, chest and abdomen after Wicks became enraged when she tried to sell him Serapax - a mood-altering drug often taken for anxiety.
Neighbours heard her screaming for her life before the murder at Wicks' parents' home at Busby, in Sydney's west, just before midnight on February 4, 2007.
In the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, Wicks, who was 47 at the time of the killing, was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years' jail after pleading guilty to murder in November.
Neighbours heard an altercation between the pair at the door of his parents' detached garage, where Wicks was living.
Justice Bruce James read out the facts of the case, which included statements from neighbours who overhead Ms Wales during the attack.
"Help me, help me - he's trying kill me," one neighbour heard Ms Wales yell.
Wicks responded: "Calm down, calm down. Please come inside with me."
The neighbour then heard Ms Wales scream: "He's got a knife, he's going to stab me."
Police found her lying outside the garage after responding to triple-zero calls, but there was no sign of Wicks.
The next morning a forensic officer was startled to find him hiding in a cupboard.
Wicks told police he met Ms Wales in drug rehabilitation 10 years earlier and ran into her two weeks before her death.
On the night of her death, Wicks said she had come to his home to sell him Serapax, but he became upset, accusing her of having passed off "bodgy" drugs as Serapax days earlier.
He struck her in the face after an argument and then picked up a 30cm bread knife from the garage and "just totally lost it".
On the day of the murder he had drunk a number of beers, more than half a bottle of sherry, smoked cannabis, had taken tablets and consumed methadone.
In court on Friday, Wicks kept his head down and expressed sorrow and distress as Justice James read his sentence.
The victim's sister, Vickie Wales, wept after the proceedings and hugged family and friends outside court.
She did not express dissatisfaction at the judgment, but said she would have been happy with a life sentence.
"He could have stayed there forever. He could have stayed there for longer," Ms Wales said outside court.
"My sister doesn't wake up tomorrow and breath air. He gets up and has breakfast."
Wicks has been in custody since his arrest and will not be eligible for parole until February 4, 2022.
