Letiticia Fortune has appeared in court in person for the first time since her arrest for the allegedly trying to snuff out a man with a pillow while he was lying in a hospital bed recovering from an alleged axe attack.
Ms Fortune appeared at Adelaide Magistrates Court dressed in trousers, a long-sleeved polka dot shirt and wearing a cap and face mask, to ask the court for her bail to be varied to allow her to move house.
Monday’s appearance came two weeks after she appeared in court via videolink from the women’s prison where she was held after police charged her with the attempted murder of Jonathon Hawtin.
Ms Fortune, 34, is the ex-lover of Lisa Lines, who police allege convinced Ms Fortune to try and kill Mr Hawton, who is also the ex-partner of Ms Lines.
At the earlier hearing, the prosecution told the court Ms Fortune had made admissions to the gruesome plot in text messages sent to a third party.
In one message, prosecutors allege Ms Fortune admitted to the plan to smother Mr Hawtin and said she and Ms Lines planned out the alleged act for the early hours of New Year’s Day because there would be less security working at the centre.
In another, Ms Fortune alleged Ms Lines had suggested she get off her medication before the kill so that she could claim insanity if she was caught, the prosecution told the court.
It is understood Ms Fortune was stopped by hospital security guards and fled the scene when allegedly attempting to carry out the plot.
The police allege Zacharia Bruckner, another lover of Ms Lines, had previously attacked Mr Hawtin with an axe at an Adelaide Hills home in 2017.
Mr Hawtin was made a tetraplegic in the alleged attack and was recovering at the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre at the time of the alleged attempted murder plot.
Ms Lines and Mr Bruckner have separately been charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to murder for their alleged roles in what police allege is a long-running plot to kill Mr Hawtin.
Police allege from December 2021 through to this year, Dr Lines and Mr Bruckner conspired to have a hit man kill Mr Hawtin and his mother, Rohnda, with undercover police operatives securing evidence of the alleged plot.
Mr Bruckner and Ms Lines have been denied bail and all three accused will appear again in court on May 20.
Ms Lines, an academic with a PhD in social sciences from Flinders University and the founder of Capstone Editing, was arrested on November 22 in the small Pacific nation of Palau and extradited to Adelaide, where she appeared in court on November 27.
Defence lawyer Craig Caldicott, appearing on the day for Ms Lines, said his client would contest the allegations against her.
The police arrested Ms Fortune, from Everard Park, on November 25.
At an earlier appearance, Director of Public Prosecutions Martin Hinton told the court Ms Lines allegedly manipulated Ms Fortune to attend the rehabilitation centre.
“[Ms Fortune] attended with a bag or pillow – she is in the hospital and she is in the corridor where his room is … looking for him, with a view to smother him,” Mr Hinton said.
Magistrate John Wells granted Ms Fortune home detention bail on December 4 on the condition she submits to drug and alcohol testing, does not contact witnesses in the case or Mr Bruckner and Ms Lines, and wears a tracking device.
On Monday, Ms Fortune applied to vary her bail to move to a new address, which Magistrate Justin Pickens granted.
Leaving the court, Ms Fortune hid her face and did not answer any questions or make any comment.