Man accused of Community St home invasion applies for bail

He’s charged with aggravated home invasion with a firearm, intentionally causing serious injury, two counts of assault, three counts of theft of a vehicle, theft of a firearm, burglary, possessing a traffickable quantity of firearms and two counts of being a prohibited person possessing a firearm.

He’s also charged with theft, careless driving, driving while disqualified, failing to give details after a crash, possessing cartridge ammunition and dishonestly retaining stolen goods.

He hasn’t entered pleas to any of the charges.

In the first part of a bail application earlier in March, police alleged Mr Kennedy was among five people involved in an aggravated home invasion on a house in Community St, Shepparton on October 21, 2024.

There were three people at the property at the time.

Detective Senior Constable Sarah Roberts told the court four men wearing balaclavas allegedly smashed windows to get into a house, and one of them pointed a silver handgun or homemade gun at a man who lived there.

Two of the men allegedly had metal bars or baseball bats, and one had a machete.

Det Sen Constable Roberts had told the court police believed the five men arrived at Community St in a ute stolen from Numurkah on October 17.

Three men have been charged over the alleged home invasion: Mr Kennedy, Travis Murrell and Isaac Hindmarsh — with the other two men remanded in custody.

The court was told a video on Mr Hindmarsh’s phone showed Mr Kennedy and Mr Murrell removing the back seats from the ute, which police allege was to clean up blood splatter from the home invasion.

Police also alleged Mr Kennedy was involved in the theft of four guns and a Toyota HiLux from a Murchison property on October 23, 2024, because his phone connected to towers in Murchison that morning, and police found four videos of the allegedly stolen guns on his phone.

Police allegedly found a stolen gun from Moama under Mr Kennedy’s bed when they searched his home, along with items that had been stolen from a different Murchison house on the same day the guns were stolen from Murchison.

The court heard the theft of seven guns from Moama was not before the court as it was being followed up by NSW police as it was a NSW matter.

Mr Kennedy’s defence counsel said no DNA or fingerprints of her client’s had been found at Community St; however, Det Sen Constable Roberts said police were still awaiting DNA results.

The defence counsel said the prosecution had “weak evidence” to place him at the burglary, and it was possible his phone could have bounced off the Murchison tower from his Mooroopna home.

Det Sen Constable Roberts said it was “unlikely” Mr Kennedy’s phone would bounce off the Murchison cell tower from Mooroopna; however, an expert would be investigating this further.

The defence counsel said the metadata of the videos of the stolen guns found on Mr Kennedy’s phone suggested they were sent to him and he didn’t record them, due to them all having the exact same modified date.

She also told the court the only identifier of the person filming was a hand with no tattoos, and her client had tattoos on both of his hands.

Mr Kennedy’s defence counsel said if he received bail, her client would be supervised by the Court Integrated Services Program.

She also told the court Mr Kennedy’s partner would sign an undertaking to the court to tell police about any bail breaches if he were bailed to her address.

However, prosecutor Samantha Owen said she had “no confidence” his partner would know about any offending because there had been a gun under her bed she didn’t know about.

In bailing Mr Kennedy, magistrate Olivia Trumble said police were “relying heavily” on cell tower records regarding his alleged involvement in the burglary, and there were “triable issues” regarding this incident and the home invasion.

However, she acknowledged the prosecution case was strong on other charges heard in the first part of the bail application.

Ms Trumble acknowledged Mr Kennedy was a vulnerable individual who had trauma and anxiety issues.

She said Mr Kennedy’s partner’s “support and availability” was a significant factor in him getting bail, and with “very strict bail conditions” the risk he posed would be acceptable.

Among his bail conditions were that he not go to the Community St site of the alleged home invasion, not go to Murchison, not associate with co-accused, report to police twice a week, comply with a 9pm to 6am curfew, and comply with the Court Integrated Services Program and all conditions of a community corrections order he was already on.

Mr Kennedy will face court in July for a committal hearing.