Lucas James Yarran, Leroy Daniel Smith: Peta Fairhead killers shave years off jail terms after epic court saga

Two men who caused the death of a young mum in a terrifying kidnapping are now eligible for parole after having years slashed off their jail terms in a relentless battle against their manslaughter convictions. Ross James Boag, Leroy Daniel Smith and Lucas James Yarran were found guilty by a jury in 2018 of unlawfully killing Peta Fairhead, 27. The mother-of-three had moved from Quairading to Perth after her marriage broke down, and had been four-wheel driving and taking methylamphetamine with two other users in the Hills hours before she died in August 2016. She had agreed to drive to the Ridgewood property of a woman who was aware one of her associates had meth on him. They were swiftly ambushed, robbed and terrorised by Smith and Boag brandishing baseball bats, and Yarran wielding a machete. “She was scared, petrified and hysterical,” Supreme Court of WA Justice Bruno Fiannaca said on Friday. The trio were forced back into Ms Fairhead’s 4WD, with one of the men shoved in the boot. While driving at more than 50km/h, she opened the front passenger door, saying words to the effect of “I can’t do this”. “It is most likely that Ms Fairhead took hold of the machete, and that you, Mr Yarran, then attempted to grab hold of her clothing,” Justice Fiannaca said. She fell backwards out the open door, hitting her head on the road and suffering a fatal head injury. The trio then dumped her body outside Joondalup Hospital. Yarran, Smith and Boag were each convicted of manslaughter plus three counts of aggravated armed robbery and deprivation of liberty in 2018. They were respectively sentenced to 11 years, and 10 years and six months’ imprisonment. Each successfully appealed their manslaughter convictions the following year, stood trial by judge alone in 2020 and were again found guilty. Second time around, all three copped eight years behind bars. But they appealed a second time and another retrial was ordered in 2024. Boag, now 28, backed out months later, entered a guilty plea and was handed the exact same term. Smith and Yarran, both now 29, backed out a year later — about two months out from standing trial for a third time. Justice Fiannaca said the pair had finally accepted responsibility for causing Ms Fairhead’s death by inflicting “significant terror” then suggesting in court that she “was essentially responsible for her own death”. “That, it must be said, had to be very distressing for her family,” the judge said. He re-sentenced them both to seven years and six months’ jail, with eligibility for parole after five-and-a-half years, which they have already served. Boag became eligible several months ago, after serving his minimum sentence of six years.