A man has pleaded guilty to hiding evidence and lying to police after his father allegedly murdered an unarmed man in cold blood in South Australia.
Marco Yandle had been accused of murdering father-of-two Steven Murphy with his dad Keith Yandle at their Kudla property north of Adelaide on February 19, 2023.
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But prosecutors dropped the murder charge against Marco Yandle on Tuesday after the 20-year-old pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of assisting his father evade arrest while knowing that he had committed murder.
The son faces a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment.
His lawyer Stephen Ey asked for his client to be released on home detention bail, arguing now that he had pleaded guilty and forensic examinations had concluded there was no risk of him contaminating evidence.
But his bid was opposed by the prosecution, who argued the case against him was at the higher end of objective seriousness.
“He went with his father into the shed to confront the deceased,” the prosecutor told Adelaide Magistrates Court.
“While in the shed he witnessed his father shoot and kill the deceased, so he was fully aware of what occurred in the shed, and then has gone about assisting his father in escaping.”
Marco Yandle hid items belonging to Murphy, including a torch and a lighter, before lying to police who attended the property, chief magistrate Mary-Louise Hribal heard.
He was denied bail and was scheduled to appear back in court in February alongside his father, who will enter pleas to his charge of murder.
Keith Yandle, 47, has also been charged with growing a commercial quantity of cannabis, owning an unregistered firearm and destroying human remains to pervert the course of justice.
Murphy’s remains were found at the bottom of a six-metre deep bunker in the Yandles’ shed in April, two months after he went missing.