The Supreme Court judge who convicted aged-care worker Garry Steven Davis of murdering two elderly residents and attempting to murder a third applied “backwards reasoning” to come to the conclusion that one person was responsible for the SummitCare Wallsend nursing home killings, according to documents filed with the Court of Criminal Appeal. Davis, 30, was jailed for a maximum of 40 years with a non-parole of 30 years in December, 2016 after he was found guilty of the murder of Gwen Fowler, 83, and Ryan Kelly, 80, and the attempted murder of Audrey Manuel, 91, after a four-week judge-alone trial in the Newcastle Supreme Court. It was reported in August last year that Davis’ legal team, led by solicitor Mark Ramsland, had lodged a notice of intention to appeal the convictions to the Court of Criminal Appeal, obtained Legal Aid NSW funding and enlisted the service of barrister Graham Turnbull, SC. And today the matter will be mentioned for the first time in the Court of Criminal Appeal, where it is expected to get a hearing date in October.
