Hannah Quinn was the victim of an unreasonable verdict over her actions following the unlawful killing of Jett McKee in Sydney's inner west in August 2018, two out of three NSW Court of Criminal Appeal judges ruled on Friday.
She helped her boyfriend Blake Davis after he fatally struck Mr McKee with a ceremonial samurai sword during the incident at their Forest Lodge home.
Ms Quinn was convicted of being an accessory after the fact of the killing and received a two-year community corrections order, while Davis was handed a sentence of five years and three months for manslaughter.
He was released on August 15 at the end of his two year and nine month non-parole period.
The State Parole Authority said he remained under supervision and had to abide by conditions until his full sentence expired in early 2026.
Mr McKee tried to rob Davis during the invasion of the Hereford St property, punching him before stealing Ms Quinn's handbag.
The home invader was pointing a gun at her when Davis killed him with a single blow from the sword, she said.
Ms Quinn booked hotels and transport, and obtained new clothes before the pair presented to police three days after the death.
She claimed they were not trying to evade arrest but rather were terrified of threats Mr McKee made during the home invasion about people coming after her.
Chief Justice Andrew Bell said the "most persuasive inference" to be drawn was that the methamphetamine-affected Mr McKee had threatened the couple with a gun inside the house and then again in the street as he tried to escape.
In those circumstances, Ms Quinn believed Davis had acted reasonably and necessarily to protect her and therefore was not helping him evade arrest after the fact, Justice Bell said in the judgment.
The jury rejected the opportunity to find that Davis acted unreasonably when it declared him guilty of manslaughter rather than murder, he said in a decision agreed by Justice Deborah Sweeney.
But Justice Helen Wilson disagreed, saying there was a dispute based on the testimony of witnesses about whether Mr McKee threatened Ms Quinn with a gun in the street.
"Common sense suggests an individual familiar with carrying out robberies would not brandish a firearm on a well-populated public street and that (Ms Quinn) would not have engaged in a scuffle ... if she saw (him) holding a firearm," she said.
Justice Wilson said Ms Quinn's guilty verdict was reasonable, but the conviction was overturned by the other two judges, who ordered her acquittal.
9°C