Trymain Maxton re-sentenced to five years for 2021 hit and run that left Russell Wynne fighting for life

Trymain Paul Maxton has been re-sentenced to five years in jail for the 2021 collision that left former WAFL player Russell Wynne fighting for his life after the Court of Appeal found that his original sentence was significantly less than it should have been. In the early hours of July 18, 2021, Maxton drove a Honda Civic belonging to Britney Ford, swerved and hit Mr Wynne at between 56km/h and 61km/h. The collision left Mr Wynne unable to eat, talk, or walk with a partially amputated right ear and multiple fractures, including to his skull. Mr Wynne spent more than three months in Royal Perth Hospital before he was transferred to the Acquired Brain Injury Unit at Fiona Stanley Hospital. Maxton originally faced a charge of attempted murder but that was downgraded in a plea offer in which he pleaded guilty in June 2022 to one count of grievous bodily harm and one count of failing to stop after an incident. He was sentenced by Judge Linda Black to a term of imprisonment of three years and two months. On February 16, 2023, the Court of Appeal granted the Director of Public Prosecutions leave to appeal Judge Black’s decision. The DPP argued that Maxton’s sentence was unjust, that he was not of prior good character as Judge Black had found him to be, and that his decision to refrain from the fighting was not mitigating. It said Judge Black’s reasoning was “manifestly inadequate”. Maxton was on parole for a 2019 aggravated robbery conviction in which he stomped on another person’s head when he hit Mr Wynne with the Honda Civic. The Court of Appeal found that Maxton’s decision to refrain from fighting should not have impacted the sentence and that Maxton did not display genuine remorse or accept full responsibility in statements to family and friends in 2021, despite his early guilty plea. In one statement, he said “the only reason I did what I did was because they were f...... smashing my cousin’s head with a f...... machete and a baseball bat”. When discussing Mr Wynne’s “vegetable” condition, Maxton said “I don’t care, he jumped in the way”. Maxton will remain eligible for parole.