Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey there, Sana Khadar here from All in the Mind. Check out our new series, Forensic. It's all about the psychological tools and tricks that come with investigating crime.
He was setting the bombs off in subways, in the New York Public Library, in movie theaters. When you're testifying in court, rather than having purely your own memory, you take on all these little bits and pieces of information from different sources.
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The arrest for a million dollar conspiracy that led police to one intruder and a health crisis of the other that almost derailed the trial. These are the uncloaked details we can finally tell you about. I'm Stephen Stockwell. Welcome to episode 16 of The Case of the Two Intruders.
Irma Palacic's brutal murder rocked her family and has haunted them for 24 long years.
This wasn't the average robbery. The brutality of the attack shocked the community.
They were virtually tortured that night.
Violently assaulted before the two men ransacked the premises and stole cash and jewellery. My grandparents were beaten and my grandmother was left to die on the lounge room floor. It was always made clear in the trial how Joseph Oconee was linked to Irma's death. They had his DNA that had been on a balaclava that was pulled off of him at an earlier robbery.
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Chapter 2: What are the details of the second police sting linked to the intruders?
You normally wouldn't mention earlier offences when someone's on trial for another offence, whatever that offence might be. And so that's fairly run of the mill. But the jury could never know about it. And some of them might be finding out about it now because it was important to keep that information under wraps. So there was a fair trial. And that's why we weren't able to say anything.
Yeah, and that suppression has now been lifted. But James, this was such a huge moment, you know, the linking of Steve Fabrizzi's DNA to Irma Placix's home in 1999. I mean, how big of a deal would it have been for investigators making that connection?
Well, it was described in the trial as a sharp turn in the investigation. Just to give people a timeline of this, because this information that has now had the suppression lifted on it sort of slots into a piece of the timeline. So just very quickly, 1999, of course, this is the home invasion, the two intruders, and
being killed and the the robbery and the secret compartment and all of that it's then 2008 that Steve Fabrizzi commits another crime is later convicted goes to prison in 2011 is when he gives his DNA as part of a statutory act that he was required to do which is a year after the 2010 review of the case so
you've got this slight mismatch of the timeline and then it's then 2019 when the match of Steve Fabrizzi is flagged up as matching the 100 billion times more likely than being someone else matching the sample that was taken from the milk container in the fridge back from 1999. So you've kind of got this 20 year timeline of things
being on the timeline but not quite matching up for whatever reason. And it wasn't until two decades later that it then started that subsequent chain of events that we've talked about on the pod, which is the undercover investigation and then the naming of Oconee and everything all sort of then fell into place to result in the conviction.
Yeah, it sort of fills that gap in the middle of this timeline that just has existed for the entire time we've been covering the case of the two intruders at such a significant moment. But the thing I've kind of wondered about with this, you know, Steve Fabrizi's arrested in 2008, you know, DNA goes in 2011.
I just sort of imagined this as like a big flashing red light in some police headquarters somewhere that, you know, the DNA matches up and ping, off goes a bulb somewhere. But what's happened, Liz? Why is there this delay between the link being made?
Well, we're not quite sure when Canberra's police asked anyone to look for a match. I mean, it might have been before Victoria actually had collected it. That's one thing. The more likely thing is that the...
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Chapter 3: How was DNA evidence crucial in linking Steve Fabrizi to the crime?
But the thing they must have had to have been really sure on and perhaps why the undercover operation ran smoothly. for the best part of 2023, is, you know, his hackles may have been up. He may have been thinking, oh, is this another undercover operation?
You know, they must have had to have their backstories and their scenarios and every tiny little brushstroke of this undercover operation really designed and planned out ahead of time so that he didn't smell a rat, as it were, and disappear off into the ether and the whole thing would fall over. Given that, they would have known he'd been stung by an undercover operation before.
So it's interesting to wonder and to pose how they would have considered the UCO 1.0 in UCO 2.0 and UCO Danny and the syndicate and all of those things, how one influenced the design of the other.
I just can't believe he got caught twice by undercover police officers, that he didn't spot it.
Yeah, it is really surprising. I mean, yeah, some of the language that was used in the undercover operation that, you know, we heard during the trial did sound a little bit police-y. So I think, you know, James, you're talking about, I think he must have been maybe aware of it. And yeah, my sympathy for being caught up in the Mr. Big, in the investigation of Irma's death.
again, while incredibly naive, is dramatically reduced knowing all of this. But Liz, you know, talking about this arrest in 2008, as you mentioned, this isn't long after Irma's death in 1999, that home invasion, you know, with less than a decade at this point.
Yes, it was surprising that it was really not, it's not that long after the 1999 home invasion. The thing that struck me is the level of violence that he'd intended to happen.
The person that was supposed to do that, who had the knuckle dusters and the cable ties, he'd told him, if you don't knock him out the first time, make sure you do knock him out the second time so he doesn't know what's going on. during the hijacking and can't prevent anything. So I just thought that was interesting that he had contemplated such a, it was a terrible level of violence.
And it was mentioned by the judges in the Court of Appeal when they increased his sentence. Initially, it was a sentence to about two years, and that was increased to four.
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Chapter 4: What was the significance of the suppression lifting in the trial?
So the extent to which it was the treatment, the disease that he is suffering from, you know, the gravity of the situation, a combination of all two, obviously we don't really know that. Justice Mossop was frustrated by the interruptions, not at Vakoni's illness. per se, but just at the interruptions to the flow of the case that he was trying to get up and running at that stage.
And Liz, I mean, you've described the ambulances, you know, coming to pick up Joseph Oconee on a number of occasions. And I mean, talking about Justice Mossop, there was one day that really kind of frustrated him, wasn't there?
Yes. This was because Joseph Focconi had come to court and then had become unwell. And so before Justice Mossop even came on the bench, but without telling the judge, the prison officers called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital before anyone could do anything. And Justice Mossop was quite cross about that because he hadn't been informed. Hmm.
But there were numerous interruptions from this as Joseph Focconi's health was deteriorating. So there was, first of all, these two occasions in court. Then we'd have to have a day off here and a day off there. And this is what led to him being able to listen to the trial from the jail.
Yeah. Why was this hidden from the jury? Why was this suppressed?
Well, the only reason I can sort of see is that, you know, there could be undue sympathy for him, although it must have been clear to jury members that there was something seriously wrong. But it was not explained to them that he wasn't just unwell, that he was suffering from liver cancer.
Yeah. And, you know, as we've talked about, he was appearing via the audio visual link, via the AVL for large parts of the trial. And, you know, he wasn't even in the room when the jury returned their verdict, was he?
No, he wasn't in the room. He was actually at the Canberra Hospital after one of his treatments. In fact, the prosecutor asked for a delay in the verdict, but the judge said, no, if they've got a verdict, we need to hear it now. So he actually heard it from the hospital.
Yeah. You know, it's such a big moment in a trial, you know, for him to not be in the room for that, for us to not be able to describe how he's responding or how he's reacting and also not be able to explain why we're not doing that because of this suppression was a really challenging moment. And I did feel like we were leaving something out when we were doing that episode.
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