A psychologist says a Creswick teenager was highly influenced by older, drug-addicted males when he stabbed a man, stole five cars, set one on fire and drove at police.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Corey Jacob Blazevicious, 19, pleaded guilty at the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday.
He is facing nine charges of theft, and one count each of armed robbery, arson, recklessly causing injury, exposing an emergency worker to risk by driving and recklessly endangering serious injury by driving.
The court heard he began the stretch of serious offending from May 12, 2020 when he was 18-years-old, about a month after he was released from custody for previous offending.
Defence barrister John Desmond said Blazevicious was released from custody to live at his mother's house, who had returned to drug use at the time, so he left to stay at hotels and at friend's houses.
He said Blazevicious became exposed to alleged co-offenders who were older than him and were all 'heavily into' illicit drug use and criminal offending.
Crown prosecutor Andrew Moore said the stretch of offending began on May 12, 2020 when Blazevicious' fingerprints were found inside a car that was stolen from outside a Lake Gardens house.
He has had 12 months to get his act together. To give him another two months in the hope he will turn it around is probably unrealistic.
- Andrew Moore, Crown prosecutor
On May 19, Blazevicious was seen driving a car that was stolen a day earlier from the victim's Alfredton driveway and with a co-accused also stole two registration plates from different cars.
The court heard Blazevicious was with co-accused Brody Harris when he stole a ute from Canadian on May 22 at about 1am.
Mr Moore said Harris picked up two other co-accused's Jarrod Cakebread and Bryce Stephens and they were driving on Howitt Street in Wendouree about 2.40am.
They saw a man drive past who Harris said owed him money.
Harris allegedly sped up to the victim, rammed his car in the rear and continued to pursue him along Doveton Street.
The victim tried to drive to Ballarat Police Station while Harris allegedly continued to ram his car a number of times, before blocking his escape when he was stopped by railway crossing boom gates.
Blazevicious was armed with a knife and stabbed the victim's airbag to gain access to his car.
Co-accused Jarrod Cakebread allegedly demanded drugs and money while holding a knife to a second female victim who was in the car.
Blazevicious climbed into the car and stabbed the male victim once to the chest and once to the back, before running away.
Blazevicious was seen driving another car on the evening of May 22 into a service station that was stolen from a Ballarat East home a day earlier.
His palm print was found in another car that was stolen from a car park in Mount Helen on May 24.
On May 25 police were informed a car that was stolen from Alfredton was in a bowls club car park in Ballarat East.
Mr Moore said police entered the car park in an unmarked car with emergency lights activated, saw the stolen Commodore and saw another stolen car was on fire.
Blazevicious is charged with being complicit in deliberately setting fire to the car.
He, Cakebread and co-accused Wade Turner were seen running to the Commodore.
Blazevicious got in the driver's seat and sped towards the police car.
The police officer swerved to take evasive action and Blazevicious continued driving at the vehicle, swerving late and narrowly avoiding hitting it.
The court heard Blazevicious sped at a second police vehicle, again narrowly avoiding hitting it.
Blazevicious was captured on a traffic camera driving at 199km/h in a 100km/h zone on the Princes Highway later that night.
Police saw him driving erratically in Werribee with no headlights and sparks coming from the rear wheel.
The trio dumped the car, which was missing a wheel and were arrested by police in Point Cook.
"The accused put other road users at risk of serious injury," Mr Moore said.
The court heard Blazevicious was on parole at the time of the offending and has been in a youth Justice Centre for the last 12 months serving another sentence.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, one victim of car theft said he was shocked and upset about the loss of his car.
He had to drive to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne weekly for appointments with his sick son.
He said the family had to rent a car, he missed work and pay in the days after because he did not have a car to drive to work and they were out of pocket $4000 because insurance did not cover the full cost.
Defence barrister John Desmond made an application for a deferral of sentence for two months to allow Blazevicious to serve out his current Youth Justice sentence.
He said this would provide Blazevicious an opportunity to improve his behaviour in custody and hopefully be reassessed as suitable for a Youth Justice Centre order for this sentence.
Blazevicious was assessed as unsuitable for Youth Justice because of his poor behaviour in custody, including the assault of another young person in custody, inciting his peers to assault a young person and intimidating staff.
Mr Desmond said Blazevicious was participating in rehabilitation programs including mental health treatment and education.
He said his client had a dysfunctional upbringing and a limited education as he did not attend high school.
The court heard Blazevicious suffered post traumatic stress disorder from witnessing his mother being severely beaten during a home invasion when he was seven-years-old.
"There has been ongoing trauma and ongoing socio-economic hardship in his life," Mr Desmond said.
He said Blazevicious was using methamphetamine and GHB at the time of the offending and was 'highly vulnerable to the negative influences of older males'.
Blazevicious wrote a letter to the court saying he was motivated to rehabilitate and he wanted to be a mechanic.
Judge Trevor Wraight said the 'articulately written' letter was in stark contrast with Blazevicious' poor behaviour in custody.
Mr Desmond said despite Blazevicious' behaviour, he had shown growth and maturity in accepting external support, which he was not open to previously.
"There is some hope for this kid," he said.
"Let's see if he can stop his bad behaviour in the next few months."
Mr Moore said he opposed any deferral of sentence as the offending was 'far too serious' and warranted an immediate term of imprisonment with a non-parole period.
"His behaviour in Youth Justice certainly didn't meet the standard required of him and gives no real promise of rehabilitation," he said.
"He has had 12 months to get his act together. To give him another two months in the hope he will turn it around is probably unrealistic."
Mr Moore said the stabbing was a serious example of the charge of recklessly causing serious injury and the victims involved would have been terrified.
Judge Wraight said this was a difficult sentencing exercise because of Blazevicious' young age
He said he decided not to defer sentence because the offending was 'extremely serious' and Blazevicious had been assessed unsuitable to serve further time in a Youth Justice Centre.
"In my view I don't think there will be any benefit in deferral of the matter further," he said.
Blazevicious will return to court for sentencing later in June.
If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.