By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim
Daniel Bushell and his half-brother John Tozer met with Ricky Ciano on 11 February 2017 for the purpose of manufacturing illicit drugs at a premises on Harris Street in the New South Wales Central Tablelands town of Oberon, and the latter died after injecting a mix of heroin and cocaine, with questions later arising as to whether Ciano injected himself with the lethal dose, or whether Tozer had done so.
‘Witness A’ attended Tozer’s Ropes Crossing home the next day and was told that on the night prior Bushell, Ciano and Tozer had some drinks to celebrate Ciano being due to have a son. Ciano had then taken some oxycodone that weren’t having the desired effect, so he’d joined Tozer in taking some heroin. And after Ciano died, the other two shut down the drug manufacturing operation and left.
Tozer told Bushell and Witness A to deal with Ciano’s body. The pair then drove Bushell’s car to pick up the body, and then dumped the vehicle 15 kilometres east of Oberon, with the deceased’s body being left in the backseat. A syringe and a container with some pills were too left in the rear footwell near the body, which was to convey that a suicide had taken place.
Bushell’s fingerprint was later found on the outside of the passenger side door window of the car, while Ciano’s fingerprint was located on the needle of the syringe, and Bushell’s DNA could not be excluded as a minor contributor to DNA found within the interior of the syringe. Bushell’s and Ciano’s DNA were also found on a mattress in the Oberon premises.
Ciano’s body was discovered in the back of the vehicle by a member of the public on 14 February 2017, while Bushell and Tozer were later arrested in relation to Ciano’s murder on 26 July 2018.
Charges at trial
Bushell and Tozer were tried jointly for murder before a New South Wales Supreme Court jury in 2023. The offence of murder, or the intentional killing of another, is contained in section 18(1)(a) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), and it carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, while section 18(1)(b) contains manslaughter, which is an unintentional homicide, and it carries up to 25 years prison time.
However, on nineteenth day of trial, the case against Tozer was discharged due to the late disclosure of evidence by police, and the trial continued before the jury against Bushell, and it included three serious drug charges, of which the defendant had pleaded guilty to.
Bushell faced two counts of large commercial supply of a prohibited drug, contrary to section 25 of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 (NSW), which is an offence that carries up to life imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $550,000. The first count comprised of an amount of seized methamphetamine, while the second count involved the supply of MDMA.
The final charge faced was one count of the large commercial manufacture of methamphetamine, contrary to section 24 of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act, which also carries up to life imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $550,000.
A further count of possessing a precursor intended to be used in the manufacture of a prohibited drug, contrary section 24A of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act, was taken into consideration when sentencing for the charge of drug manufacture on a Form 1.
Form 1 offences are charges laid against an defendant, of which they haven’t been convicted, but on their request, these are taken into consideration on sentencing alongside a primary offence, in accordance with section 32 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW).
On 5 September 2023, the jury found Bushell not guilty in terms of murder but guilty of manslaughter, based on unlawful and dangerous act.
And NSW Supreme Court Justice Stephen Rothman then sentenced Bushell to 18 years prison time, with non-parole set at 12 years, which covered the crimes of manslaughter and the three accompanying drug offences.
Issues at trial
During the trial, the prosecution relied on the testimony of two witnesses detained with Bushell in the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, and their testimonies related to admissions the defendant made regarding he and his half-brother having provided Ciano with a “dirty shot”, with one version involving the purposeful killing of the man in order to be able to fund the paying of a debt.
The trial also involved an issue relating to two jury notes provided to Justice Rothman, after the jury had retired to reach its verdict, asking whether an individual could be found guilty of manslaughter in circumstances where they had aided and abetted another in circumstances of self-killing.
The prosecution had commenced its case on the presumption that either Bushell or Tozer had injected Ciano. And following the jury questions, his Honour shifted his position in stating that the defendant could be found guilty for manslaughter in relation to having “participated, either by the administration, or by aiding and abetting in the administration, of the illicit drug”.
Grounds of appeal
Bushell went on to appeal his manslaughter conviction to the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal (NSWCCA) on 26 February 2025. He did so on the broad basis that when the trial commenced, there were two options of how the crime could have been perpetrated, with either Bushell or Tozer administering the lethal dose, however a third scenario arose as the jury was already out for verdict.
Four grounds of appeal were put to the court. The first broad ground was that the trial judge’s redirections in response to the questions put by the jury had been in error when his Honour had permitted it “to find the applicant guilty of manslaughter in circumstances of a self-killing”. The three further grounds were alternatives to be put in the case that the initial ground failed.
NSWCCA Justice David Davies found in his summing up, Justice Rothman had underscored that a verdict of murder or manslaughter could only be ascertained as a result of either Bushell or Tozer having administered the lethal injection, however his Honour then opened up the third option of guilt in regard to circumstances of self-killing in response to questions then put by the jury.
Justice Davies then referred to the precedent set in the 2017 High Court case IL versus the Queen, which found that the offence of manslaughter is not committed in a case when a deceased accidentally kills themselves, and nor is it comprised when attributing an act to a person that causes self-killing.
In fact, under the current circumstances, the only offence of which Bushell could possibly be found guilty in regard to is that of aiding and abetting in the administration of a prohibited drug, contrary to section 19 of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act, which carries maximum penalties of 2 years imprisonment and/or a fine of $2,200.
On 7 March 2025, in accordance with his findings, Justice Davis ordered that Bushell’s manslaughter conviction be quashed and a New South Wales Supreme Court retrial over the death of Ciano be held. Hs Honours’ colleagues NSWCCA Justice Julia Lonergan and Dina Yehia agreed with his orders.
