- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island readers should be aware this article contains images of a deceased person.
The mother of the man who was run down and killed on a residential Nowra street has told a court through tears of a violent incident that preceded her son's death.
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The trial of Jayden Walmsley-Hume, 20, and his mother Katie Walmsley, 39, has entered its second week at the Supreme Court sitting in Wollongong.
The Currarong pair have pleaded not guilty to murder after being accused of seeking out and running over 18-year-old Taj Jared Hart who was walking to his friend's house along Old Southern Road on February 22, 2022.
Walmsley has also denied being an accessory after the fact to murder.
Mr Hart's mother, Erin Hart, took to the witness stand on Monday, July 22 where she told jurors of a violent incident involving her son and Walmsley-Hume six weeks prior to the hit-and-run.
Ms Hart said she was outside her grandmother's home, where her son lived, when she alerted those inside that she saw Walmsley-Hume driving past in a small white car.
She told the jury a group ran outside, including Mr Hart who grabbed a metal pole, before the white car attempted to strike them by a Colorbond fence.
She said the car hit the water meter and swerved back onto the road after it missed the group.
Ms Hart said the car returned shortly after, with Walmsley-Hume and his father exiting the vehicle.
"They hopped out, they came back to my mum's house, Jayden had a knife in his hand, his dad had a crowbar," she told the jury.
Ms Hart said her partner then tried to stop Walmsley-Hume from stabbing her son, with her son retaliating by hitting Walmsley-Hume with a metre-long pole.
The jury previously heard Walmsley-Hume's arm was fractured during the incident.
"At what point did he (Mr Hart) hit Jayden?" Crown prosecutor Kate Ratcliffe asked.
"When Jayden was trying to stab Taj with the knife," Ms Hart replied.
"Within a few moments it was over and they walked off."
Ms Hart said as Walmsley-Hume walked back to the car, he looked at her son and said: "You're gone."
Through tears, Ms Hart told jurors how she was messaging her son on Snapchat about the upcoming Goulburn show as he walked along Old Southern Road moments before he was struck.
It's the Crown's case that the hit-and-run was an act of revenge towards Mr Hart for fracturing Walmsley-Hume's arm.
The trial, before Justice Robertson Wright, is expected to run for the next three weeks.
Grace Crivellaro
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
