Kiara Ferguson died after being shot with a pipe gun her husband, Adam Winmar, had made, after it hit the bathroom floor of their Shepparton home on April 1, 2023.
Winmar, 30, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton Supreme Court to reckless conduct endangering life and being a prohibited person possessing a firearm.
He was previously facing a charge of manslaughter; however, it had been withdrawn by the prosecution.
Prosecutor Jim Shaw told the court Winmar had left the loaded homemade gun under a cushion inside the couch in the living room of their home they lived in with their two young daughters.
One of his daughters found the gun, and Ms Ferguson, who was pregnant with their third child, took it off her.
Mr Shaw said while Winmar was using the toilet, Ms Ferguson either threw the gun at him or deliberately dropped it, and it went off when hitting the floor.
A shot from the gun struck Ms Ferguson in the head beneath her eye, causing her death.
The court heard Winmar said he’d made the gun as an experiment, and it had “never really worked” or been fired before.
In a victim impact statement from Ms Ferguson’s mother Mr Shaw read to the court, she said arriving at the scene felt like an “out-of-body experience”.
“All I could do was scream,” she said.
“Life had changed for all of us in a split second.
“She was taken away in such a senseless way.”
She described the incident as being like a police show in America.
“It’s not something I ever thought would happen to my little family from Murchison,” she said.
“Our lives will never be the same again.”
Ms Ferguson’s sister said she had been “consumed in grief” and cried most days for her sister, whom she missed terribly.
“Seeing and smelling her blood on the accused haunts me,” she said.
“She died by herself on a floor.
“I think sadly about the future ... and all that we will miss out on together.”
In a victim impact statement from one of Ms Ferguson’s brothers, he said she wasn’t only his sister, but his best friend.
“A piece of my heart has been taken ... losing my baby sister has broken me,” he said.
Her other brother said the crime had made him “physically sick”, and her death had left a “big hole in the whole family”.
Mr Shaw said Winmar put his family in an “extremely dangerous situation” by insecurely storing the gun “in the heart of the home” where children played.
“He made it, he loaded it, he left it lying around,” Mr Shaw said.
Winmar’s defence barrister John Lavery acknowledged the events following the incident had been “catastrophic” for all involved, and that his client had felt a personal and moral responsibility for what had happened.
He said Winmar didn’t have any malice or intention to hurt his children or his partner, whom he’d been in a 10-year relationship with, and the gun possession was related to paranoia and substance abuse.
Mr Lavery said his client had gone through “enormous changes in his life” after the offending, saying he’d lost his partner, home, Shepparton community and children, with whom he has no contact.
He said Winmar had met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and major depressive disorder, and his younger years were complicated after being exposed to alcohol and drug abuse, and violence.
Winmar will be sentenced on November 28.
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