Travis Brett Murrell, 18, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to failing to obey a police direction, unlicensed driving, possessing a prohibited weapon, hindering police and an authorised person from towing a vehicle, driving an unregistered vehicle, using a false registration plate, theft of a vehicle and possessing methamphetamines.
The court was told police had asked Murrell to stop to speak to them when they spotted him parked in a Shepparton service station after they noticed his car registration did not belong to that vehicle on May 16 last year.
He also did not have a driver’s licence, and had never held one.
Instead of waiting, Murrell drove off fast.
The next night, when police went to Murrell’s Shepparton house to impound the Ford sedan because Murrell had been driving unlicensed, they found a large samurai sword on the back seat.
When the tow truck was loading the vehicle shortly after midnight, Murrell threw a car jack through his car window, before climbing on to the roof of his car, jumping on it and caving in the roof.
Police said this was to obstruct them from towing the vehicle.
The court heard that on a separate occasion, a Mitsubishi Outlander was stolen from the Melbourne suburb of Heathmont on February 19 last year.
It was recovered by police just over two months later in Lockwood Rd, Shepparton.
The court heard DNA on the steering wheel was linked to Murrell.
On yet another occasion, on September 5 last year, police found Murrell outside a Shepparton house with two bags of methamphetamine.
He had also thrown a third bag of the drug when he threw his phone on to an air-conditioner outside the house.
The drugs weighed a total of 2.61g, including the bag weight.
Murrell’s defence counsel said her client had complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and autism, and had used drugs since the age of 12.
She said his drug abuse had escalated after the death of his brother in 2021.
She asked for a short term of imprisonment as punishment, as Murrell was already in prison on remand on a charge of home invasion.
Magistrate Olivia Trumble sentenced Murrell to 30 days in prison, and ruled that he was not eligible to apply for a driver’s licence for another two months.
The prison term will be counted as having been served separately to his remand time on the other matter.
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