A woman who pointed a loaded revolver at a terrified victim, only for the gun to misfire, has been jailed.
Sheridan Louise Schnurfeil, 31, pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering life, being a prohibited person with a firearm and other assault, deception and driving offences at the Victorian County Court.
Sentencing judge Anne Hassan said it was lucky that the small revolver misfired, with no ammunition discharged.
As it was, the victim and her parents were “deeply traumatised” by the attack at their Carrum Downs home.
“I can find no real explanation for why you were in possession of the revolver and why you subjected (the victim) and her family to such a terrifying attack.”
There had been some “animosity” in the lead-up, with the victim believing her car windscreen had been smashed by Schnurfeil and her boyfriend.
On 5 March 2022, the latter pair drove to the home where the victim’s father hurled a small statue at Schunurfeil’s Commodore and attacked the car with a baseball bat.
Schnurfeil tried to fire a “small revolver” at the victim. She then aimed the gun towards the residential street and it misfired again.
Judge Hassan said it was again lucky the gun didn’t fire and no one was injured or killed.
As the victim tried to help her father fallen on the ground, Schnurfeil hit her with the gun twice to the head.
The father again attacked the car with his bat as Schnurfeil’s partner reversed the Commodore. The car then allegedly accelerated into the father. The partner faces charges of intentionally causing serious injury in the County Court at a later date.
The next day, Schnurfeil and her partner were intercepted by police in Cranbourne.
While her partner was arrested, she went into a convenience store on Camms Road, and deposited two ammunition rounds and casings into an empty Australia Post stamp box.
She left the shop with the box on a shelf and fled the scene.
While a suspended driver, she was also detected speeding at 94km/h in a 60km/h zone in her unregistered Commodore with stolen plates and evaded an attempted intercept by police in Cranbourne.
On 9 March, she was arrested in a back yard in Willow Drive, Hampton Park. She was deemed unfit for a police interview.
The court was told of Schnurfeils’s history of drug abuse and mental illness.
However, Judge Hassan declined an assessment for a CCO due to the “extremely” serious offending.
She noted that Schnurfeil had been on previous rehabilitative CCOs to “no avail”.
The discharging of a loaded gun pointed at a person and at a residential street required “stern condemnation” by the court, Judge Hassan said.
“You must understand the consequences that will flow from such serious criminal behaviour.”
Judge Hassan noted prison would weigh more heavily on Schnurfeil due to her persistent and severe depression, anxiety and PTSD.
Schnurfeil was jailed for up to three years and three months, with a non-parole period of two years.
She had served 307 days in pre-sentence remand.
