The sister of Daniel Merrett has told a District Court jury she did not use methamphetamine before her vehicle smashed into a fuel tanker and killed her brother, despite the drug being found in her system.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Kayleen Merrett continued to give evidence on Wednesday in the manslaughter trial of Daniel Butler and Andrew Russell, who are accused of causing the fatal collision on the Princes Highway at Albion Park Rail on May 18, 2019.
It is alleged they chased the Ford Territory Mr Merrett was travelling in before it crashed; both have pleaded not guilty.
Ms Merrett told the court that her brother "seemed very frightened" when he got back into her vehicle at a petrol station at Cringila on the night of the collision.
The court heard she had seen Mr Merrett and another man, Thomas Johnson, talking to two men there.
Ms Merrett said she was going to return to her house, but her brother told her she couldn't because "they'd already been there and put two bullets in the back of [her partner] Jack's head and bashed him".
Instead, she said, she went to Mr Merrett's Warrawong home, where Butler pulled up beside her vehicle in a silver car and told her to drive, "and when he gave me a signal, stop my car".
She told the court she left with her brother, Mr Johnston and another passenger, and decided to drive to Lake Illawarra police station.
The court heard Ms Merrett drove along Northcliffe Drive, followed by the silver car, but stopped when she heard a "loud bang".
She said the silver car also stopped before Butler got out and ran towards the passenger side of her car with a "baseball bat or something", opened the door, and yelled at Mr Johnston to get out.
Ms Merrett said she then heard two loud bangs, "really close" to her car.
The jury heard she told police that her brother said, "They just shot at us, go", and in court she described feeling "really scared".
Ms Merrett said she drove onwards to the Princes Motorway, with the silver car following behind.
"I seen the truck just before I hit it... and I looked back at Daniel and Jakkaya and said 'I'm sorry', and that's it," she said.
When Butler's defence lawyer Bernadette O'Reilly asked about methamphetamine being found in her blood, Ms Merrett said she had last used the drug two weeks before the crash, and denied using it sooner.
"I did not have a role in my brother's death," Ms Merrett said.
She also gave evidence that she remembered hearing Butler say at the Cringila petrol station that night that Mr Johnston had to transfer $2000.
When Ms O'Reilly suggested she did not hear that, because it was not included in her statements, Ms Merrett said she had told police about it.
Ms O'Reilly asked why she did not call triple-0 or seek safety on the night if she was frightened, to which Ms Merrett said she was scared and focused on driving.
Russell's defence counsel, Winston Terracini, asked if Ms Merrett saw anyone leaning out of the silver vehicle; she replied no.
She denied ownership of an ice pipe, ketamine and syringe found in her vehicle after the crash.
Ms Merrett told the court that police had informed her she was travelling at 220km/h and hit the truck at 160km/h.
The jury heard the statement of Senior Constable Paul Winston, in which he described seeing a dark-coloured SUV followed by a silver car heading south on the motorway at high speed, and later coming across the crash scene.
Mr Terracini asked if he observed any bullet holes in the crashed vehicle, found any cartridge cases, or saw any fire damage; Senior Constable Winston said he had not.
The trial continues.
We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.