A woman hoping to work with children has been sentenced after telling one of her extortion plot co-offenders she was "ballied up" and sending him a photo of herself dressed in black clothes from head to toe, only to then back out last minute.
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A recently published ACT Supreme Court judgement states in August 2021, Keona Rosalie Watson became aware that Jesse Christopher Kirkwood was planning to carry out a $13,000 "hit" on a person.
Upon his offer of money, Watson, 21, gave him the address of a house where the target often stayed with a friend.
The would-be killer and co-conspirator Jamie Banks then descended upon this place in Chapman.
When the target's friend's housemate told them the target was not there, Watson's co-offenders threatened him.
Fearing for his safety, the housemate agreed to drive Kirkwood and Banks to look for the target.
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Kirkwood said words to the effect of "I'm a professional kidnapper and I'll kill someone for a certain amount of money".
He also retrieved a samurai sword and told stories about how he would like to kill people.
When the co-offenders learnt the target was not home, they told their driver victim there was a $25,000 hit on the target, prompting him to pay $2000 to ensure nothing happened.
Later that day, Kirkwood sent Watson $500 for her work in providing the address.
In the pair's text messaging, Kirkwood told her he needed to go back for $10,000 and he would "prefer no loose ends".
"Those boys are going to literally cry begging for their lives," he said.
In the early hours of the next day, Watson told Kirkwood "I'm ballied up and got gloves" and sent him a photo of herself dressed in gear, ready for action.
She said she wanted to "get this done before 6" so she could sneak back into her house.
On the way, however, Watson backed out before Kirkwood and another man went to the house where the target's friend and the friend's housemate, who was involved in the earlier incident, lived.
The men stole numerous items as the victims were not home at the time.
Sentencing judge Associate Justice Verity McWilliam said Watson's culpability was less than her co-offenders'.
"But the circumstances of the offending are extremely serious and the role she played in providing the assistance she did could have had dire consequences [for the target] had he been home," she said.
Associate Justice McWilliam said Watson's motivation was either money or greed, or perhaps spite.
"However, I have placed little weight on motivation here as I accept the underlying motivation was directly related to the offender's long-term drug habit," she said.
Watson was sentenced to a jail term of nearly two years backdated to last December and suspended on May 3.
The offender, who aspires to study childcare and had served 133 days in pre-sentence custody, was placed on a drug and alcohol treatment order.
Associate Justice McWilliam considered Watson's age, lack of criminal history, and "obvious commitment to rehabilitation". Kirkwood was sentenced in late June while Banks has pleaded guilty.
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