A farm worker who amputated a pensioner's leg with a circular saw in a Far North Queensland park has been found guilty of manslaughter but not murder. John Yalu, a banana picker, was paid $5,000 by Kalman Tal, 66, to remove his lower left leg at a public park in Innisfail in the early hours of February 19, 2022. Mr Tal died shortly after the amputation.
The Supreme Court in Cairns heard during a four-day trial that Mr Tal had suffered years of leg pain and had been offering locals cash for an amputation in the weeks before his death. Yalu pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the start of the trial but denied intending to cause grievous bodily harm. The jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty of manslaughter after less than three hours of deliberation.
Court evidence showed Mr Tal called Yalu about 3am, saying he was waiting with tools. They went to a park along Fitzgerald Esplanade, where Mr Tal showed Yalu how to use the circular saw and instructed him to hammer metal stakes into the ground to hold his legs in place. CCTV footage captured the three-minute amputation at the ankle. Afterward, Mr Tal hopped and crawled to his car, but Yalu walked away instead of driving him to the hospital.
A passer-by found Mr Tal in a gutter with a phone connected to Triple Zero about 10 minutes later. Despite emergency services' efforts, Mr Tal was declared dead at 4:30am. Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald argued Yalu was guilty of murder because his intent was to remove a distinct body part, constituting grievous bodily harm. Defence barrister Jacob Kantor argued Yalu intended to help an older man who had been pressuring him to alleviate chronic pain.
Justice James Henry told the jury they were entitled to use their 'innate sense of fairness and justice on behalf of the community' after a juror questioned whether applying the law strictly would require a murder conviction. The juror had also printed internet material about legal concepts, but neither side applied for a mistrial. Had Yalu been convicted of murder, he would have faced a mandatory life sentence with a minimum 20-year non-parole period.
