Cassius Turvey murder trial: Accused Mitchell Forth says co-accused was ‘shaking’ after alleged attack

One of the men on trial for the murder of Cassius Turvey told police one of his co-accused was “shaking” after he emerged from the bushland where the teenager had been attacked and that two of them were wearing knuckledusters. Mitchell Forth also told officers during his recorded interview one of his co-accused said they had to “get out of here” when they got back into their car after the alleged incident in Middle Swan on October 13, 2022 because what happened was “not good”. Cassius Turvey died from bleeding on the brain ten days after he was struck on the head with a metal pole after he fled from a group of strangers that had accused him and his friends of smashing car windows. The Indigenous teenager had been in Middle Swan that day with more than a dozen other teens to watch a fight that had been organised on social media between Ms Gilmore’s younger brother, Cody, and other teens. Mr Forth along with Jack Brearley, Brodie Palmer and Aleesha Gilmore have been on trial in the WA Supreme Court for more than a month accused of the teen’s murder. The trial has been told the night before the attack on Cassius, Mr Brearley’s car windows had been smashed in retaliation for an alleged attack on another teen four days earlier that he, Mr Brearley, Ms Gilmore and another man, Ethan MacKenzie, are also on trial for. Prosecutors have alleged the quartet had gone out searching for those responsible as well as those Ms Gilmore believed had threatened her brother and her home. In the interview from October 29, 2022, Mr Forth told police as they drove down Lloyd Street, Ms Gilmore began yelling at some of the teenagers and claimed some of them were carrying weapons and had covered their faces. He said they drove up Patterson Drive and Ms Gilmore jumped out with the three remaining men staying in the car before pulling up in front of the teens. He claimed the teenagers began yelling at them prompting all three to jump out of the car. An argument then developed between Mr Brearley and one of teens, who was then given a knife from another teenager, he said. Mr Forth then told police the teens then scattered with some running into the bushes. “You could see that there was people in there,” he said in the interview. “I assume it was Jack and Brodie. I said, ‘c’mon let’s go’.” Mr Forth said he next saw Mr Brearley and Mr Palmer when they got back to the car, adding that he did see a “commotion” earlier in the bushes and a white shirt. “Jack was like ‘ we gotta get out of here, it’s not good’,”, Mr Forth said in the interview. “And I looked at him (Jack) and he’s like shaking and I’m like ‘rightio’ and looked at Brodie and the look he gave me, it did not look good.” When asked if he asked what happened, Mr Forth said he didn’t want to know. He also claimed at this point in the interview that was played to the court that he didn’t see any metal poles but told police he saw Mr Brearley and Mr Palmer with knuckledusters. In his opening, prosecutor Ben Stanwix told the court Mr Forth initially denied knowing anything about the shopping trolley poles in his police interview, but later admitted he was in the alleyway when three trolleys were broken and the poles were taken out. Mr Stanwix also said in his opening that Mr Palmer admitted to an undercover operative that he disposed of the trolley poles by burning them. The trial continues.