In October 2013, 22-year-old Australian woman Rekiah O'Donnell was shot and killed by her boyfriend, Nelson Lai, in his home in

Sunshine Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when th ...

, a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. At the time of the shooting, Lai was under the influence of a purified form of methamphetamine known as "

ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

". O'Donnell died of a single gunshot wound to the head. During the trial, Lai told the

Victorian Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Victoria is the highest court in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited and inherent jurisdiction within the state. The Supreme Court compri ...

in 2015 that the killing of O'Donnell was an "accident" and he "didn't know there was one ulletin it" when referring to the gun. During the 14-month relationship, Lai allegedly beat and punched O'Donnell and made threats, including a text message reading "I'll kill you, rat". The jury found Lai guilty of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

over the 22-year-old's death. Since the death, O'Donnell's family has made a

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

petition to create an

Australian law The legal system of Australia has multiple forms. It includes a written constitution, unwritten constitutional conventions, statutes, regulations, and the judicially determined common law system. Its legal institutions and traditions are substa ...

called "Rekiah's Law".

References

Murder in Melbourne Women in Melbourne {{crime-stub