Drug addict's vile act after killing mum
When heroin addict David Mapp killed his elderly mother inside her Central Coast home by throwing a pot plant at her head, leaving her in a pool of blood, he refused to call triple-0 immediately and instead stole her TV that he hocked so he could score more drugs.
Mapp will on Thursday learn in the NSW Supreme Court how many years he will spend in prison after he murdered his mother Colleen Wilson, 82, with an act of brutal, senseless violence on July 28, 2022.
Videos played to a jury showed his bizarre attempts to explain his actions, including his claim that he spent hours trying to revive his dead mother when he in fact went to a pawn store to sell off items he had stolen from her Tumbi Umbi home.
The court was told the 59-year-old, who had been a heroin user since he was 16, called triple-0 just after 5.15pm. By the time paramedics and police arrived, Ms Wilson had been dead for hours. David Mapp speaks to police in his mother's home after he killed her with a pot plant. Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia
Her body was found on the dining room floor underneath a blanket that Mapp had placed over her.
During the call to triple-0 he told the operator that he had a 'big argument', 'things got pretty bad' and she 'fell down and I tried to revive her'.
He said that while at his mother's house, she asked him to go outside to get a pot plant so she could water it.
He claimed that his mother was 'chasing me around the house' with a knife and to 'protect' himself he hit her with the pot plant.
'I, um, threw the pot plant at her and, ah, there was no response after that,' Mapp said.
He told the operator that Ms Wilson was bleeding heavily from the head.
Mapp further claimed that he had been attempting CPR on her all day 'hoping she'd come to'. Mapp killed his mother before hocking her household goods at a pawn store for $200. Supplied. Credit: News Corp Australia
THE PAWN STORE
During a trial earlier this year, 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.
He had claimed to the triple-0 operator that he had 'been waiting all day … trying to revive her (Ms Wilson)'. However, he was contradicted by CCTV that showed Mapp arriving at the Long Jetty Pawnbrokers at 9.36am – nearly eight hours before he called authorities.
He was seen getting out of a red Toyota Corolla with 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 he used to buy heroin. He was paid $200 for a TV and whipper snipper. Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia
'I THREW THE PLANT, I GUESS'
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.
'Thought I'd be OK. Uh, not realising the effect that it would have if you just stop completely,' he said.
The vision also captured his rambling, often confusing explanations about the incident.
Mapp said 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'. Mapp being placed in the back of the police car. Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia
Police: 'OK. So what happened then when she tried to plunge the knife into you?'
Mapp: 'Uh, she fell down … I stood there for a minute. Uh … blood sort of.'
Police: 'How did she get blood on her head, David?'
Mapp: 'Uh, I guess when I threw the plant, I guess. She hit her head on the way down.'
However, he soon backtracked, telling the officers: 'I didn't throw it. I didn't throw it at her.'
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 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.'
Police: 'And where did you hit your mum when you threw it at her?'
Mapp: 'Uh, in the back, back of the head.'
Police: 'In the back of the head?'
Mapp: 'She was facing towards the room, sweeping the floor.'
Mapp will be sentenced by Justice Ian Harrison on Thursday morning.
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