Pemberton, WA: Farmer thrown behind bars for life over the callous murder of beloved father-of-three on his rural property

A farmer who shot dead a father of three he wrongly accused of stealing avocados and sheep from his vast estate has been sentenced to life in prison.

John Gerard Benny Della Franca, 67, shot Tony Ditri, 40, twice at his farm in Pemberton, 300km south-west of Perth, on August 27, 2021.

Della Franca was sentenced to life in prison in the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Friday. He will be eligible to apply for parole in 20 years.

The farmer killed the gardener after becoming increasingly fearful that locals were stealing produce, sheep and cattle from his land.

Della Franca confronted the gardener as he was emptying grass clippings at a public dump across the road from his farm.

Mr Ditri denied the charges, after which Della Franca grabbed a hunting rifle and shot him once in the chest and arm, and again in the back.

He moved the gardener’s body to his farm and then returned to the dump to tie some fishing nets to the back of Mr. Ditri’s car and drove it toward the Warren River.

Della Franca wanted to make it appear as if Mr Ditri had “gone missing on a fishing expedition gone wrong”, prosecutor Brett Tooker told the court.

However, the car got stuck and Della Franca had to walk 15 km back to his farm. There he put Mr Ditri’s body in a manure bag, put the bag in an apple crate and threw the bag away on an unguarded farm where he kept sheep.

The court heard that Della Franca went into the bushes and dug a hole one metre deep to bury the body.

Although Della Franca was arrested on August 28 and later admitted to shooting Mr. Ditri, he repeatedly told police that he dumped the victim’s body in the Warren River.

After an extensive search, Mr. Ditri’s son noticed fresh soil on the hole Della Franca had dug on September 15.

He alerted the police, who found the gardener’s body.

Della Franca was previously charged with the murder of Mr Ditri, four days after he was last seen on September 1, 2021.

Mr Ditri (pictured right) denied stealing when confronted by Della Franca on August 27, 2021 while he was emptying grass cuttings at a local landfill

Mr Tooker told the court that Della Franca had shown no remorse for his actions.

“He only thought about himself,” the prosecutor said.

“There is no evidence of genuine remorse. He is only concerned with himself.”

Judge Bruno Fiannaca acknowledged that Della Franca had not confronted Mr Ditri with the intention of killing him, but that he had decided to shoot after he denied stealing.

The judge said victim impact statements showed the gardener was a much-missed husband and beloved father of three young children.

“They mourn the fact that he (Mr. Ditri) will be missed as a husband, father, son, uncle and brother,” Judge Fiannaca said.

“(His wife) is broken and struggling every day to face the world. She is still angry and her children suffer daily because of what you did.”

Della Franca will be eligible for parole in 20 years, after his 87th birthday.