Judge resigns to sentence second teenager charged with murder of North Lakes mother Emma Lovell

The judge in the case of a teenager accused of murdering Brisbane woman Emma Lovell has resigned to hand down his sentence.

Emma Lovell, 41, was stabbed in the heart and died on the front lawn of her North Lakes home during a home invasion on Boxing Day 2022.

Two 17-year-old boys, who cannot be named because they were minors at the time, have been charged with her murder.

Ms Lovell’s husband Lee Lovell was also stabbed in the back and head during the incident.

The teenager responsible for the fatal stabbing pleaded guilty to murder earlier this year and is currently serving a 14-year sentence.

The trial of the second teenager, now 18, began this week in the Supreme Court in Brisbane.

Speaking outside court today, Mr Lovell said the trial had been “intense”.

“Honestly, it was very difficult. Working full time, being a parent and trying to manage your home and everything else is really a full-time load,” he said.

Conviction of murder depends on knowledge of knife

The Crown Prosecutor accepted that the defendant in this case had not committed any violent acts himself.

The Crown’s case is that the teenager was responsible for Ms Lovell’s death because he and his accomplice formed a common intention to break into the house while armed and there was a likely consequence that they would endanger human life.

However, the teenager’s lawyer claims he did not know the other boy had a knife.

This was a key point of contention in this trial.

The court returned a murder conviction and even an alternative manslaughter charge, entirely dependent on whether the teenager knew the other had a knife.

The most important evidence in this trial was CCTV footage from the Lovells’ doorstep.

In his closing submissions, the Crown Prosecutor said the footage captured the moment another teenager waved a knife in the face of the accused, “presenting it to the accused”.

“It must be more than just a coincidence that at the same time (the other teenager) moves his hand to present the knife in this way, the accused turns his head,” Crown prosecutor David Nardone said.

Security cameras captured a fight on the front lawn

However, the boy’s lawyer, Laura Rees, said it was impossible to determine from the vision that her client had turned to face the knife.

“There was a period of four or five seconds where at the highest level the knife could have been in the peripheral field of vision, at the highest level,” Ms Rees said.

“There is no evidence in my statement to support this footage, the claim that he was directly looking at that knife.”

CCTV captured the moment two teenagers ran out of the house, minutes after entering, as Emma and Lee Lovell tried to grab them.

Mr Lovell told the court he wanted to detain them until police arrived.

The vision showed a struggle between the couple and another teenager on the front lawn before Ms Lovell fell to her knees, clutching her chest.

Ms Rees said her client could be heard shouting “stop, stop, stop, stop” as another teenager kicked Mr Lovell as he lay on the ground.

Ms Rees told Judge Michael Copley he should find her client guilty of breaking and entering but not murder.

Lee Lovell has ‘no ill will’ towards the teenagers’ family

Outside court, Mr Lovell told the media that if he is found guilty of murder, he wants a sentence similar to that of the first teenager to plead guilty.

When asked if it was difficult to sit next to and see the teenager’s family in and out of the courtroom, Mr Lovell said he had “no ill will towards them”.

“I’m not going to sit around and try to attack people, that’s not in my nature.”

Judge Copley will deliver his verdict before the teenager turns 19 in November.