Ni-Vanuatu man acquitted of murder after sawing man's foot off for cash

A ni-Vanuatu banana picker in Australia has been acquitted of murder after sawing off a grandfather's foot in exchange for $6000.

However, on Friday, the Supreme Court jury in Cairns found John Yalu guilty instead of the manslaughter of Kalman Tal in the North Queensland town of Innisfail in 2022.

The 41-year-old pleaded guilty to the lesser charge at the start of the four-day trial on Monday but denied intending to cause him grievous bodily harm.

He will be sentenced for manslaughter in the Supreme Court on Monday.

The ABC reported that Yalu leaned into the microphone from the dock and said "thank you", as jurors left the courtroom after delivering their verdict after less than three hours.

It said that during the trial, the court heard shocking allegations of how Tal had spent years offering local people cash to remove his left foot, because doctors refused to do it. He claimed he had suffered chronic pain in the foot for years, linked to a workplace injury.

The jury was shown confronting CCTV footage of the botched operation at a public riverfront park in Innisfail, and evidence was heard from 15 witnesses.

The crown claimed that afterwards, Yalu left the pensioner bleeding heavily in the gutter by his car – he died soon after being found by passers-by.

The Cairns Post reported that during the trial, Yalu's lawyer Jacob Kantor suggested that his client felt "pressured" by the victim to do the job and his intention at the time was to "help".

"In two decades of running criminal trials, I have never, never come across a similar case. The circumstances are exceptional and tragic," Kantor said.

"Tal asked for help and, I suggest, that was at the forefront of Yalu's mind [when he cut off the foot]. That was his intention. It was not to cause grievous bodily harm; it was the opposite – it was to alleviate the pain and suffering that Tal had been talking about to all and sundry – the pain that nobody else was willing to help him with," he said.

"John Yalu, the smiling, happy, helpful and kind man, [was] honestly believing he was helping an old man."

Another defence lawyer, Angus Edwards, had told the court that Tal had been "shopping around" for someone to remove the foot, saying he had repeatedly approached strangers, according to the ABC.

"It was debilitating pain, that lasted some four to five years and he couldn't get help for it," Edwards said.

The Cairns Post reported that crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald argued during the trial that Yalu's intention was "considered and deliberate" and motivated by financial gain.

She said the definition of grievous bodily harm included "the loss of a distinct part of the body", and she said the jury would accept that was what Yalu intended to do when he sawed off Tal's foot.

"This wasn't a mistake, or something that went too far, or something he was forced to do. What Yalu did was done with a clear intention with money on his mind," Friedewald said.

"He didn't do it for altruistic purposes. He did it for [$AU] 5000 cash," she said, urging the jury to leave emotion out of deliberations.

When opening the case against Yalu, Friedeweld told the court that the two men met an at Innisfail jetty in January 2022.

Tal told Yalu he'd pay for someone to chop off his left foot because his doctor had refused to amputate it.

The court heard that, by February, Yalu allegedly agreed to saw off Tal's foot above the ankle in return for payment.

Friedewald alleged that on February 19, Yalu told the police he received a phone call from Tal saying, "I'm waiting for you. I've got the tools and I want you to amputate."

"They drove a short distance to the river, Tal lay down on the grass and showed Yalu how to use the battery-powered circular saw he had brought, before he placed tape over his mouth so he wouldn't shout out," she said.

"Yalu used that saw to amputate his foot, as per the agreement between them. After that, Tal passed him an envelope with AU$5000 (NZ$6000) in cash."

Friedewald described the case as "unusual" because all the events were captured on CCTV by several businesses nearby, including Innisfail Seafoods and council parks, and were played to the jury on the second day of the trial.

In the enhanced zoomed-in footage the men could be seen cleaning up afterwards, before doing a few hops, Tal collapsed to his knees, and crawled the rest of the way to his nearby car.

"Yalu followed, putting a bag of tools and a plastic bag in the back of Tal's car, then left him bleeding. The victim was found later by passers-by just before 4.30am," she said.

"[Yalu] told the police he became 'really scared' when he got Tal to his car because he thought he was dying, so he just closed the [car] door and left."

The court heard that the accused walked home, put a blood stained envelope with the money inside his bedside drawer at home, then went to see friends, where he was arrested around midday.

Friedewald alleged that when two men came across Tal in the early hours, he was speaking in a faint voice from the gutter and asked one of them to call emergency services.

Jurors were told that unsuccessful attempts were made to stop the bleeding using sticky tape and plastic shopping bags as makeshift tourniquets.

"As they tried to move him, they saw there was blood everywhere, he was missing his left foot above the ankle and some plastic had been wrapped around his leg, just above the amputation site," she said.

She told the jury an ambulance and police officer arrived soon after, but Tal could not be saved. He died of blood loss on the ground next to his car and was declared deceased at 4.30am.

"It's clear Kalman Tal was in a lot of pain, whether it was actual pain, referred pain or hallucinatory or delusionary pain is not known but, for him, it was very real pain," she said.

In summing up the case, Justice James Henry said that, in terms of a verdict, it "didn't matter" that the victim had provided the tools, showed the accused how to use the circular saw, taped his own mouth, asked for his leg to be amputated, and paid for the task.

"The fact that he wanted his leg chopped off, consented to having his leg chopped off, is not a defence. Truth can be stranger than fiction, which this case seemingly demonstrates," Justice Henry said.

rnz.co.nz