A man who killed his friend with a screwdriver in an unprovoked attack in a western Sydney backyard shed should be found not guilty of murder due to mental illness, the Crown has told a judge.
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Sosiua Tonga, 36, made several admissions following the death of Juan Miguel Cervantes about 1am on August 11, 2019, crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the NSW Supreme Court on Monday.
Mr Cervantes regularly visited the Greenacre man at the Eastern Creek home he shared with his partner Astrid Muller at the time.
Soon after the attack, Tonga told his brother-in-law he was sorry and that he had been trying to get out of the house for a long time due to "demons down the back".
He also asked Ms Muller if she was the devil.
Justice Helen Wilson is presiding over the judge-alone trial and heard that both defence lawyer Troy Anderson and the Crown agreed she should find a special verdict for Tonga under the Mental Health Act.
The regular methylamphetamine (ice) user sent 32 WhatsApp messages to Ms Muller over a 14-minute period before she heard noises outside.
She then saw Tonga pulling Mr Cervantes who had blood on his forehead.
"Sunshine do you love me, do you have my back?" Tonga said to his partner before she pleaded with him to stop what he was doing.
He threw his friend into the shed while Ms Muller could hear Mr Cervantes saying: "It's me, it's Miguel".
A crosshead screwdriver is believed to have caused the final fatal wound penetrating the left skull and travelling through the frontal lobes into the other side of the head.
Shortly before the noises began Tonga had complained Mr Cervantes was talking loudly at various stages and asked Ms Muller to come outside.
"I told you to come outside. Is this what you wanted?" Tonga yelled at his partner while an ambulance was called.
There was no evidence that Mr Cervantes attacked or provoked Tonga and experts agreed this fear that he was in real danger was a result of his mental health impairment at the time.
He was hospitalised with schizophrenia in 2018 while suffering delusions that his wife was having affairs and the drug mafia were looking to harm him.
He was prescribed monthly injections of an anti-psychotic drug but had his last dose in May, three months before the assault.
As he was experiencing low therapeutic levels of his medication he was responding to high levels of the drug ice which causes aggression, paranoia, psychosis and disinhibition, the court was told.
Two forensic psychologists agreed he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the attack and that his mental impairment prevented him from knowing his conduct was wrong.
Both believed his substance-use disorder contributed but did not cause the chronic major mental illness that resulted in psychosis, delusional beliefs and disorganised behaviour.
Tonga is due to be sentenced in the coming weeks with victim impact statements from Mr Cervantes' family members expected.
Australian Associated Press
