Farmer Blames an Eggplant for the Shooting Murder of His Neighbour

Angelo Russo, a 55-year-old Goulburn valley chilli farmer, has been accused of murdering his neighbour. But Angelo claims he didn’t mean to shoot his neighbour in the face with a shotgun. He says he slipped over an eggplant while carrying a loaded weapon with the safety off, which tragically unloaded on his neighbour.

On Wednesday, prosecutors at the Victorian Supreme argued that Angelo had intentionally murdered neighbour David Calandro, who had earlier run over his dog, an English Spaniel named Harry. But Angelo kept rambling on about the eggplant, which was found beaten and slightly squashed at the crime scene.

Prosecutor Nicholas Papas QC, said in his opening address: “I won’t make any jokes about it, but it will loom large, this eggplant.”

On the day of the shooting, David and his friend Vincent Vigliaturo had driven to Angelo’s farm for some chillies. Angelo’s dog had been running beside David’s ute as they were leaving the farm when, according to Vincent, David swerved into the dog to “spook him.”

According to The Australian, Vincent recounts looking in the rear view mirror after it felt like the ute “went over a speed hump,” and he noticed Angelo’s dog Harry spasming on the ground.

Having brought the incident to David’s attention, Vincent claims, he just shrugged it off and continued driving back home.

About 10 minutes later, reports The Age, Angelo called Vincent and said, “you fucking cunts, you ran over my dog and you didn’t even fucking stop.” Vincent told the court that Angelo wanted to know where David was.

Vincent had driven back to Angelo’s farm and found David's car with blood all over the window. Both of David’s sons were in the car at the time of the shooting. Vincent told the court he saw Davids 13-year-old son in the passenger seat with blood splattered across his face.

Angelo’s barrister, Patrick Tehan QC, said that the prosecution’s version of the story was false. According to Angelo, he had to put his dog down with the shotgun in a coup-de-grace just before David’s car pulled up to his farm. As he walked over to David’s car, he slipped on an eggplant and his gun discharged after smashing against his windscreen.

Angelo claims gun had a dodgy safety mechanism, which meant the gun would abruptly go off whenever the barrel made contact with another object. According to the Herald Sun, an expert witness told the court that the shotgun did have issues with the safety mechanism, and the gun would discharge if the barrel made contact with an object.

Patrick Tehan told the court that the men were mates, “they were on friendly terms, you don’t kill a mate over a dog.” But the role of the eggplant is still looming, as the nightshade vegetable continues to haunt this case.

The trial continues.

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