A woman who drunkenly stabbed a man during an altercation at a friend’s house was challenged into the act with his simple response of “if you’ve got the balls lady, do it”, a court has been told.
Moments after the challenge, Reggae Holly Jones would return with a knife and deliver the blow that would leave the victim in hospital.
Just months later, she would go on to “deliberately” hit a motorcyclist during a road rage incident, throwing him into a busy intersection and leaving him on the road.
The wild turn of events was revealed as Jones, 30, appealed her sentence at Brisbane’s Court of Appeal on Friday.
But all three judges rejected submissions that her sentence was “manifestly excessive” and there were mistakes in the sentencing judge’s finding of a “quintessential serious violent offence” using a vehicle.
“Both counts… involved serious offending of its kind,” Supreme Court Justice Michael Buss stated.
“The individual sentences were at lower end of the available range and the total sentence was reasonably lenient.”
Jones, 30, was jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to a raft of charges, including grievous bodily harm and dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm while affected by an intoxicating substance and leaving the scene.
She was ordered to serve three-and-a-half years before being eligible for parole.
During her sentencing in October last year, Brisbane District Court was told Jones became upset at a man while consuming alcohol with a friend on December 6, 2020.
She told the man: “Shut up or I’ll stab you”.
Not thinking her threat was genuine he replied: “If you’ve got the balls lady, do it.”
Jones then returned with a knife, stabbing the man in the chest.
Doctors had opined the man would have died from a “respiratory compromise” or blood loss if not treated for the stab wound.
Eight months later, while on bail, Jones got into a road altercation with a motorbike rider on Gympie Rd in Kedron.
She was captured on traffic cameras slamming into the bike about 8.30pm, throwing its rider into the intersection of Gympie Rd and Sadlier St while he was stopped at the lights.
Jones then drove off, leaving him lying in the intersection.
The court was told the rider suffered multiple fractures to his shoulder, finger and femur which required surgery. To this day he still relies on a cane for support.
Jones returned a BAC of .097 when arrested.
She told police she had been “having a bad day”, sparked by the anniversary of her young son’s death in 2010.
Later, she confessed: “I shouldn’t have left the scene, it makes me look like a mongrel. He did nothing wrong to me, that’s the worst part.”
Lawyers for Jones had argued the sentencing judge erred in finding the use of her vehicle to strike the motorcyclist was a “quintessential serious violent offence” which caused her parole eligibility to be delayed.
They also argued the sentence was excessive as a parole eligibility date had not been set for Jones’ offences.
But the Court of Appeal judges – including Justices Michael Buss, Peter Flanagan and Declan Kelly – rejected those arguments.
“It was open to his Honour to conclude that, in all the circumstances, the public required protection from a person who was willing to drive a motor vehicle in the manner in which the applicant drove her vehicle,” Justice Buss stated.
“Adequate punishment of the applicant required a longer period in actual custody than would otherwise be required before becoming eligible for parole”.