By JOHN SCHALCH and SAMANTHA HEALY - Townsville Bulletin
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A MAN charged with the murder of Mount Isa man Aaron Macfarlane will reappear in the Townsville Magistrates Court this morning.
Aaron Jon Woodsbey, 27, made his first appearance for mention in the same court on Saturday morning and has been held in custody in Townsville over the weekend.
He was formally charged last week almost three months to the day since Mr Macfarlane was shot.
A fatally wounded Mr Macfarlane, 30, was dumped at the Mount Isa Base Hospital about 9.30pm January 3, 2012, bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to the chest.
He died five hours later.
He left behind four children and his wife Chanara who was at his bedside when her husband died about 2am January 4.
Ms Macfarlane was in the Townsville court on Saturday for Woodsbey’s first appearance and said she would be there for his second hearing - which is expected to set a criminal court hearing date - this morning.
A Mount Isa woman also appeared in court on Saturday accused of being an accessory to murder when her fiance, Woodsbey, shot Mr Macfarlane.
She was granted bail.
Laura Louise Waller, 19, is alleged to have been in the car with partner Woodsbey and a third person on the night of the shooting on January 3, 2012.
She is also accused with providing incorrect details to police, signing a statement that read she and her partner weren’t in Mount Isa when Mr Macfarlane was shot.
Waller had told police she and her partner were east of Mount Isa, towards Cloncurry, ``looking for snakes’’ at the time.
The third person told police he travelled in the car with the pair when they disposed of the firearm.
The man also said he later witnessed Woodsbey shower and change clothes before burning the ones he was wearing.
The caravan Waller and Woodsbey had been living in in Mt Isa was searched in February and police found a Colt semi-automatic handgun and a Harrington Richardson semi-automatic handgun and “quantities’’ of ammunition.
In a later search of the pair’s computers, police uncovered photos of the pair holding the guns and discovered neither had a firearms license.
Defence lawyer Claire McKinnon made a successful application for bail, arguing Waller posed no flight risk despite her biological father living in UK.
She said her client was a “gun enthusiast’’.
Police prosecutor Lescha Palmore said the charge could attract a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and argued
Waller should be remanded in custody.
“She may be fearful of imprisonment but if granted bail, she might be a flight risk,’’ she said.
“She was granted occasions to provide truthful statements (but refused).’’
Waller will next appear in Townsville Magistrates Court at 9am on May 27.