Thread: Panel beater had dozens of beers and bongs before shooting burglar

A panel beater who shot and killed a man outside his Thomastown factory had consumed 54 to 68 bongs and 39 to 42 stubbies of beer on the day leading up to the shooting, a court has heard.

Ivan D’Angelo told a Supreme Court jury on Thursday how he would wake up with a ‘‘brekkie bong’’ and then start drinking and smoking marijuana for the rest of the day until he went to bed.
The only thing he had to eat during the day before the shooting was two slices of pizza, at about 8.30pm.
Defence barrister Peter Faris, QC, provided the jury with a chart detailing Mr D’Angelo’s drinking and drug-taking habits.
Asked how he was able to carry out skilled panel work when drinking so much beer, Mr D’Angelo replied: ‘‘Pretty much before I even started my apprenticeship, my brother's friend was teaching me how to panel beat and I've learnt to drink while I work, it's a normal thing for me.
‘‘I'm immune to it, that's what I do pretty much every day.
‘‘I've been smoking marijuana since I was 15 years old, drinking alcohol pretty much from the same, probably about 17, something like that, and I've been pretty heavy right from the start.’’
Mr D’Angelo, 39, pleaded not guilty to murdering Wade Vandenberg, who died from a single .22 bullet wound to the head in the early hours of March 28 last year, when he and two other men were aiming to gain entry to the yard outside the factory.
Mr D’Angelo pleaded guilty to the alternative lesser charge of manslaughter, claiming Mr Vandenberg’s death was an accident.
Mr D'Angelo had been living in an upstairs area of his panel beating business when he heard a noise just after 2am, took a gun with a telescopic sight from a safe and fired one shot from an upstairs window.
Crown prosecutor Anne Hassan told the jury Mr D’Angelo was guilty of murder because he "lined up the deceased man's head" and fired with the intention of killing or seriously injuring him.
Ms Hassan said Mr Vandenberg, 26, was standing next to a man with boltcutters in the rain when a shot was was fired "out of the dark" and without warning.
Mr D’Angelo told the jury on Thursday how he heard a dog barking next door and got up and saw three men in front of the factory gate.
‘‘I heard the gates moving so you could actually hear a lot of noise, so I knew they were doing something to the gate,’’ he said.
‘‘To be honest I didn't know what their intentions were, if they were there for the cars or to come into the shop, I'm not sure.
‘‘When I seen them at the gate, hearing the gate that's what scared me, believing they might actually come in to hurt me, something like that ... hurt me, kill me, who knows.
‘‘When I seen them there I went and put the light on and that's when I grabbed my firearm out of the safe.’’
Mr D’Angelo claimed he poked the gun out the window not realising it was loaded.
‘‘I was hoping to get the attention of the three guys, hopefully they will see the light coming out from the window and see me standing at the window.’’
He screamed ‘‘hey’’ to the men as loud as he could, when the gun suddenly went off.
‘‘I was shocked it actually went off, yes, I believed it wasn't loaded.’’
Mr D’Angelo said he saw Mr Vandenberg’s knees ‘‘sort of buckle like that and then he has just fallen straight on his back’’.
The jury found Mr D’Angelo not guilty of murder on Thursday afternoon before he formally pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Justice Lex Lasry remanded Mr D’Angelo to appear on October 7 for a pre-sentence hearing.


Read more: Panel beater had dozens of beers and bongs before shooting burglar

2 cartons of beer and a quarter ounce a day.
That's quite some habit....

The fact that he heard anything and woke up is amazing me.

was either hungry or thirsty

Originally Posted by AndyCap

The fact that he heard anything and woke up is amazing me

Yea, or needed a whizz

Mr D'Angelo had been living in an upstairs area of his panel beating business when he heard a noise just after 2am, took a gun with a telescopic sight from a safe and fired one shot from an upstairs window.

Good shot with a .22.
The bullet must have gone in an eye.

Even a teetotaller would not have got a shot like that in the dark.

Good shot with a .22.
The bullet must have gone in an eye

You would be surprised how many people are shot with 22's and how fatal the small bore can be,
He should have got a few rounds into the other 2 tossers while He was at it, thats Home Invasion!

.22 long has plenty of power to penetrate a skull, but not enough to exit one.
It would basically just bounce around inside for a while turning his brain to mush.

Experienced gunman Ivan D'Angelo, who shot intruder dead in Thomastown, gets 8 years in jail

An experienced shooter who smoked 35 bongs and drank 42 stubbies before shooting dead an intruder at his workshop in Melbourne's north has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Ivan D'Angelo, 39, pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court in August to the manslaughter of 27-year-old Wade Vandenberg after a jury found him not guilty of murder.

The court heard D'Angelo was disturbed by three men trying to break into his Thomastown business one night in March last year and panicked.

D'Angelo was living in the warehouse at the time and prosecutors told the court he "lined up the victim's head" and shot him in the middle of the forehead from the window of his bedroom.

The court heard Vandenberg and two associates tried to enter the property to steal an engine part for Mr Vandenberg's car.

In sentencing Justice Lex Lasry told D'Angelo it was a tragedy he had not reached for his phone instead of a loaded gun.

"The fact that his death was so avoidable in so many ways makes it all the more tragic," said Justice Lasry.

"No reasonable person should ever point a gun at another person and pull the trigger."

The court heard D'Angelo had consumed up to 42 stubbies of beer and as many as 35 bongs of marijuana in the hours leading up to the shooting.

D'Angelo earlier told the court he did not realise his gun had a live round in the chamber when he lined up Mr Vandenberg's head and shot him.

Justice Lasry said he did not accept the prosecution's argument that D'Angelo's offending was "in the higher range of seriousness" for manslaughter.

"The crime came to you rather than you going out to commit a crime," Justice Lasry said.

"Your chances of reoffending are very low ... you're well aware of your stupidity.

"I'm convinced you did the best you could to tell the truth about what happened."

He will serve a minimum term of four and a half years.

Experienced gunman Ivan D'Angelo, who shot intruder dead in Thomastown, gets 8 years in jail - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Originally Posted by Necron99

2 cartons of beer and a quarter ounce a day.
That's quite some habit....

Lifestyle, less habitual.

He is about to lose his habit for 4 and a half years, Iwonder which one he will miss most.

Sobriety, wonder if he can handle it.

The efficacy of a .22 round is dependent on the type of ammunition used and the weapon.

Ivan de Angelo did not set off any riots, unlike That White Cop who gunned down a don't shoot plea from an unarmed teenager.
Justice sucks.

After what he smoked and drank he did a good job finding his gun ,let alone aim it.