Shooting marks 'tragic toll of drug trade'
Shooting marks 'tragic toll of drug trade'
In the early hours of a crisp August morning on the Gold Coast in 2009, a single gunshot sounded across the car park of a McDonald’s restaurant.
The bullet tore through the left arm of 26-year-old Ben Matthews and into the chest of his 34-year-old friend Richard ‘‘Rick’’ Doherty.
Samuel Mark Friedman, then aged 24, and his 28-year-old girlfriend Rachel Bertomeu, escaped unharmed.
However, there remains only one survivor among the four friends.
Mr Doherty died as a result of the single gunshot wound to his body.
The following year, Mr Matthews died of a drug overdose.
Ms Bertomeu was killed, at the age of 29, in a car crash in March this year.
Today, the sole survivor and self-confessed gunman Samuel Friedman sits in a bleak prison cell.
‘‘That’s the tragic toll of the drug trade,’’ said Michael Friedman, Samuel Friedman’s father.
‘‘It’s sad ... just very sad.’’
In the months prior to the shooting, the lives of the four friends resembled a revolving door of drug-fuelled, high-rise parties at the heart of the Gold Coast’s glitter strip.
The close-knit circle of friends, who shared in drugs, sexual partners and crime, were living a precarious existence, hopping from one high-rise apartment to the next, partying from dusk until dawn.
However, the months-long drug binge on a cocktail of ecstasy, LSD, alcohol and Xanax soon saw paranoia descend upon the group.
One apartment frequented by the group was raided by police and Mr Matthews and Mr Doherty wrongly believed Friedman had been an informant.
Meanwhile, Ms Bertomeu had aided other associates in a violent home invasion, in which she stole a gold bracelet that she later traded for an antique 1911 Austrian Steyr pistol, for protection against her ex-husband whom she feared.
Friedman appeared to be somewhat on the fringe of the circle, however his Surfers Paradise apartment, owned by his parents, became a party node for the group.
Michael Friedman recalled his son saying the front door of the apartment had been broken down at one stage, after police were called to the premises over a noise complaint.
‘‘Then people could just walk in and out of the place, from what I can gather,’’ he said.
After countless sleepless nights, Friedman asked Mr Matthews and Mr Doherty to purchase $200 worth of drugs on the evening before the shooting.
But Mr Matthews and Mr Doherty were delayed in sourcing the drugs.
There was a series of heated phone calls among the trio that evening, until Friedman agreed to meet with Mr Matthews at a nearby AutoBarn.
Friedman was driven to the meeting point by Ms Bertomeu.
Yet, Mr Matthews failed to arrive and instead the young couple were met by Mr Doherty, who began punching Friedman through the passenger-side window of their car.
Unbeknownst to Friedman and Ms Bertomeu, Mr Doherty threw the drugs he had obtained into the back seat of the car during the fight.
Friedman spoke again to Mr Matthews over the phone and agreed to meet him, this time at the Burleigh Heads McDonald's.
However, Friedman was ambushed in the restaurant's car park by both Mr Matthews and Mr Doherty, who started punching him through the window.
Friedman reached for the 100-year-old pistol he and Ms Bertomeu had acquired in the weeks prior and fired one shot.
This week Friedman was to stand trial over the fatal August 15 shooting, but in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Wednesday he made an 11th-hour guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully wounding Mr Matthews outside the fast-food restaurant at Burleigh Heads.
During his sentencing yesterday, Friedman’s barrister Dennis Lynch said his client had acted when he was under attack and had not known he had shot either man until he arrived back at his unit.
"He did not intend to cause any injuries," Mr Lynch said.
"My client did not initiate the violence and was not armed for any confrontation with the two men ...
"It was not in my client's nature to be involved in violence."
Friedman, originally from Port Macquarie in New South Wales, had moved to the Gold Coast reeling from a relationship breakdown to establish a scaffolding business and was living in a unit owned by his parents.
"He was there hoping to make a fresh start," Mr Lynch said.
"But he became involved with people taking drugs and he started taking them too."
Acting Justice Julie Dick said Friedman's actions had a devastating impact on Mr Doherty's family.
She instructed Friedman to read a victim impact statement written by Mr Doherty's family. Friedman wept as he did so.
Outside court a friend of the Doherty family, who requested not to be named, said the tragic outcome of the shooting was more the result of a rampant drug culture.
‘‘It was one big set of tragic circumstances,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s the result of the drug culture - this is just a typical example.’’
Michael Friedman said the shooting has shattered his family, but his thoughts were with the Doherty family.
‘‘There’s a family who’s lost a son,’’ he said.
‘‘I beat myself up about it every day.’’
Of the drug culture, Mr Friedman said it amounts to nothing more than death.
‘‘Drugs possess people,’’ he said.
‘‘They were in already shocking circumstances and it got out of control.’’
He has faith his son will be able to resist the temptations that have destroyed his life so far upon his release from prison.
‘‘He has his life ... he’s been given the opportunity when other people haven’t,’’ he said.
Justice Dick noted that Friedman had been under immediate attack when he fired the shot but concluded his reaction did not amount to self-defence.
She sentenced Friedman to eight years in prison, to be eligible for parole after serving two years and three months.
Justice Dick also recommended that Friedman be allowed to serve the rest of his sentence in a NSW jail in order to be closer to his family.
As Friedman was led to jail yesterday, he was asked by a Doherty family friend whether he was remorseful.
"I am sorry," he replied.
The family’s friend said everyone involved was relieved the case was behind them.
"It's finally over," she said.
"When I asked if he was sorry, he could have kept on going, but he didn't, he did turn around and did say he was sorry.
"This whole court case was just based on tragedy."
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