Troy Matthew Maskell, 44, then of Numurkah, pleaded not guilty in a jury trial in the Supreme Court to a single charge of manslaughter.
After five days of evidence and deliberations, the jury took a little more than one day to decide on and return a unanimous guilty verdict on Monday, August 14.
During the trial, the court heard how Mr Burke, 73, was assaulted by Maskell in the Strathmerton Roadhouse in the early hours of August 8, 2021.
He died in hospital 11 weeks later.
Mr Burke had been at the roadhouse talking to the shop attendant when Maskell’s then girlfriend and a child walked in soon after midnight.
The woman took offence to Mr Burke speaking to the child.
The court heard Maskell threw a one-litre bottle of drink at Mr Burke, hitting him in the head.
Maskell then kicked Mr Burke in the hip, causing him to fall the ground.
Maskell then stomped on Mr Burke’s glasses and kicked the bottle at him, which hit Mr Burke in the groin area.
The court heard Mr Burke’s injuries included an initial bleed on the brain and broken pelvis.
This was followed by blood clots on his lungs on August 11 and a second bleed on the brain on August 16 which led to brain damage.
He did not recover. He went in to palliative care on October 15 and died later that month.
The argument in court was a legal one about whether the assault led to Mr Burke’s death.
The defence accepted the facts of the actual assault in the roadhouse, but argued that it did not directly cause Mr Burke’s death and that it could be linked to pre-existing health issues, whereas the prosecution argued Mr Burke’s death could be directly linked to the assault.
Both the prosecutor and defence counsel outlined their cases to the jury for the final time on Thursday, August 10.
Prosecutor Stephanie Clancy told the jury that even though Mr Burke had underlying health issues that made him more susceptible to problems, “the act of throwing the bottle was a cause of his death”.
The prosecution maintained that Mr Maskell meant to hit Mr Burke with the bottle and that he meant to kick him to the ground.
Ms Clancy argued the two brain bleeds and blood clots on his lungs were all connected, as the second bleed resulted from treatment for the blood clots and would not have occurred without the assault.
Mr Maskell’s defence counsel Julia Munster urged the jury to acquit her client, saying there was no evidence the initial brain bleed was caused by the assault and was not a pre-existing or returning bleed.
She also said it could not be ruled out that the second bleed may have been caused “naturally” from Mr Burke’s pre-existing illnesses, including cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and said it was not necessarily linked to the assault.
After the handing down of the jury’s verdict, Maskell was remanded in custody.
He will return to court in November for legal argument from the prosecution and defence about his sentence.
15°C