Biannca Edmunds appealing murder conviction over bungled assassination plot

A woman who plotted with her new beau to assassinate her ex-partner in an attack that left both men dead has urged a court to overturn her conviction. Biannca Edmunds, 38, was jailed for 26 years in October last year after a jury found she was responsible for the murder of Michael Caposiena, 38, in March 2016. Mr Caposiena died almost instantly when he was shot in the head by Edmunds’ husband of two weeks, Glenn Cassidy, but not before Mr Caposiena fatally stabbed Cassidy. Dressed in a white shirt and with long brown hair, Edmunds appeared in the Court of Appeal on Wednesday as her lawyers argued the trial judge had erred by taking self-defence off the table. Her barrister, Dermot Dann KC, argued the evidence at trial raised the possibility Cassidy was responding to Mr Caposiena stabbing him when he shot him in the head. The court was told Cassidy arrived at Mr Caposiena’s Westmeadows home armed with a sawn-off shotgun about 7pm on March 12 with “murderous intent”. He knocked on the front door and asked for a handshake before forcing his way inside. Within seconds, both men had been fatally injured. Mr Dann said the evidence from Mr Caposiena’s partner, Silvana Silva, was that she did not see the 53cm firearm until almost instantly before it was fired. He argued the medical evidence showed Mr Caposiena could not have stabbed Cassidy four times after he was shot – opening the possibility Mr Caposiena attacked him before the gun was produced. “To prove Biannca Edmunds committed murder it must be proved beyond reasonable doubt Glen Cassidy committed murder,” he said. “Maybe the jury would have rejected any claim of self-defence. But it was a question for the jury on the evidence as it emerged.” Mr Dann suggested Justice Lex Lasry made a mistake by finding it was “absurd” to leave self-defence as a consideration for the jury. In response, Raymond Gibson KC for the crown said the evidence showed Cassidy was the aggressor and argued there was nothing to infer he believed he needed to shoot Mr Caposiena to defend himself. “We say it’s fanciful,” he said. “On any view here there was really no reasonable possibility that it could be said there was any self-defence on behalf of Cassidy.” Mr Gibson said Ms Silva told the court she observed a struggle between the two men as Mr Caposiena attempted to control Cassidy’s hand with the gun in it. He also pointed to evidence Cassidy brutally attacked Ms Silva next, suggesting he believed it was her who stabbed him not Mr Caposiena. “The girl stabbed me, she stabbed me,” a neighbour who came to her aid heard Cassidy say. Sentencing Edmunds last October, Justice Lasry found she held longstanding hostility to Mr Caposiena and used a “degree of control” over Cassidy to have him killed. The pair had split three years earlier and Edmunds wanted him out of her and their son’s life. She denied her involvement in a tearful interview with police, saying: “I’m not a psycho”. But during the trial, two witnesses claimed Edmunds confessed separately to them while in custody. They claimed she told them the firearm had been used “as a kind of sex aid” while persuading Cassidy to kill Mr Caposiena. Justice Lasry found Edmunds and Cassidy had begun to make plans for the murder as early as December the previous year, with Edmunds “pressing” him to do something. “The planning and thought that went into Caposiena’s death, though totally misguided, was lengthy, careful and designed to avoid criminal liability for you,” he said. “I am not sure how much pressure you applied to Cassidy. “I accept that he was a willing participant, not a mere dupe, and engaged in the plan with some enthusiasm perhaps because by doing so, he gained your attention and approval.” Justices Karin Emerton, Lesley Taylor and Peter Kidd reserved a decision on the appeal which they will hand down at a later date. Edmunds will be eligible for parole in January 2042 after serving 20 years of her sentence.