A drug-addled man who rammed open a factory gate and fired a gun near a business owner after a dispute over an e-scooter purchase has been jailed.
Cody Guerra, a 21-year-old father-of-three, was in a Hilux ute that dislodged a factory gate in Clayton South early on 12 November 2023.
On bail at the time, Guerra confronted the victim who lived on the premises.
He walked up to the victim’s face, asked who else was around and produced a gun.
“You want a gun fight? What’s with you” the victim asked.
The victim swung a baseball bat at Guerra, missing him “by a hair”, sentencing judge Patricia Riddell said on 3 March.
The victim took cover, before Guerra – who didn’t have a gun licence – fired in his vicinity just a “few car widths away”, then fled the scene.
There was a realistic risk of the shot ricocheting off other factory items and causing injury, the judge said.
Guerra was found guilty by a Victorian County Court jury of being a prohibited person using a firearm and of property damage.
Days earlier, the victim was offering an e-scooter for sale. Guerra took it for a ride but never returned it. Nor did he pay the owner.
In search of Guerra, the victim visited Guerra’s girlfriend’s home, and in frustration broke her home security camera.
On the night of the shooting, Guerra later rang the victim, and one of a pair of women lingering outside the gate warned the victim he’d get shot.
Judge Riddell said the community didn’t tolerate the carrying and use of guns for revenge or intimidation.
She said it was a brazen, premeditated act, in company with others, in order to scare the victim from retrieving the e-scooter when Guerra had been “in the wrong”.
The victim had not been threatening or the aggressor, but was entitled to contact Guerra about the scooter.
His breaking of the security camera “in no way justified your retaliation”.
Judge Riddell noted the “profoundly detrimental” financial, social and emotional impact on the victim.
His sense of peace and safety was shattered, with his workplace becoming a “place of danger”, the victim stated.
Since diagnosed with PTSD, he’d been haunted by flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety.
His business – which was started by his father – became “paralysed” and closed, his reputation was tarnished at the factory complex.
The judge noted Guerra’s extensive priors, as well as being exposed to criminality, family violence and drugs from a young age.
He was impaired with a mild intellectual disability, as well as a possible acquired brain injury due to a car crash or drug use.
But this didn’t eliminate him from blame, the judge stated.
Now 22, Guerra’s rehabilitation prospects were “guarded” but being youthful gave him potential for redemption.
Being placed on a NDIS plan would help him to give up drugs, she noted.
Guerra was jailed for 18 months, followed by an 18-month community correction order.
The CCO includes supervision, judicial monitoring, as well as drug and mental health treatment.
His jail term includes 266 days already served in pre-sentence detention.
