Razor scooter homicide wasn’t murder, jury finds

The murder suspect who attacked a man with an ax using a metal scooter was acquitted.

A jury on Tuesday agreed that Kane Flanders defended himself during a chaotic early-morning confrontation in April 2024.

Flanders, 32, and his brother left their home in Raymond Terrace in Sydney’s north in the early hours of April 9 to ask a disruptive couple to be quiet.

A jury found Ashley Morgan, 38, carrying an axe, which he repeatedly brought to meet his girlfriend after he suspected someone had taken his drugs and phone.

CCTV footage showed Mr Morgan and his partner wandering the street, shouting abuse and swinging an ax at letterboxes.

The jury was told Mr Flanders told his brother to give him a machete and was instead given a metal scooter lying on the veranda.

Mr Morgan fell to the ground after being shot and could not be saved.

The jury on Tuesday found Flanders not guilty of murder after more than three days of deliberations, accepting his claim of self-defense and that his actions were not excessive.

He argued that he was hit with an ax during the argument and that he was defending himself against Mr Morgan while swinging the scooter.

“I hit him, he’s practically attacking me with an axe,” he told a police officer at the scene, the jury heard.

An autopsy revealed that Mr. Morgan died from blunt head injury and had cannabinoids and methamphetamine in his system.

Flanders remains in custody on unrelated charges.