Heroin addict who killed mother with pot plant learns fate
David Andrew Mapp was on Thursday sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court after he murdered his mother Colleen Wilson, 82, on July 28, 2022.
Ms Wilson had been dead for hours before Mapp, 59, called triple-0 at about 5.15pm, with police finding her body in a pool of blood and covered by a blanket, which he had placed on her.
During the call to triple-0, Mapp told the operator that he had a 'big argument', 'things got pretty bad' and she 'fell down and I tried to revive her'.
'I, um, threw the pot plant at her and, ah, there was no response after that,' Mapp said
Mapp offered to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
However, that was rejected by the Crown prosecution and the jury ultimately found him guilty of murder after he threw a 15kg pot plant at her head.
Mapp had claimed to the triple-0 operator that he had 'been waiting all day … trying to revive her'; however, he was contradicted by CCTV that showed Mapp arriving at the Long Jetty Pawnbrokers at 9.36am.
He was seen on CCTV selling a Homelite whipper snipper and 55-inch Hisense TV that he had taken from his mother's home.
The store clerk took his identification and details, filled out the paperwork before handing over four $50 notes, which Mapp used to buy heroin.
When police arrived at his mother's home, bodyworn footage captured him telling officers that he was previously on methadone but had stopped about a month prior.
He said that he 'came in and she had her back to me at the table … doing, sweeping the floorboards … and she came at me again with the knife'.
He then claimed that he 'protected' himself and 'she just kept trying to plunge, lunge at me with the knife'.
'Uh, I guess when I threw the plant, I guess. She hit her head on the way down,' he said before backtracking on the claim moments later.
He then said he 'sort of lunged at her with the plant' before moments later claiming 'I didn't lunge'.
He then changed his story once again when he told police: 'Well … before she could turn around and pick the knife up … Um, and I just, I didn't know how hard I was throwing it.'
Justice Ian Harrison on Friday sentenced Mapp to a maximum of 21 years in prison.
He will be eligible for release on parole in July 2037 after serving 15 years.
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