A prison officer's shooting of a shackled and unarmed escapee amounts to murder, a jury has been told.
Dwayne Johnstone, 43, died after one of three gunshots fired at him plunged into his back and hit his heart outside Lismore Base Hospital in 2019.
The shots came from the work-issued revolver carried by a middle-aged corrections officer, who a NSW Supreme Court jury was told on Monday had seconds earlier shouted "stop or I'll shoot".
But prosecutors allege the March 15 shooting occurred without lawful excuse.
While Mr Johnstone had moved quickly from the accused man and an unarmed colleague, he was unarmed with his ankles and handcuffs shackled, crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC said.
When shot, he'd made it onto the entrance ramp of a closed doctor's surgery opposite the hospital.
"There was no one in that doctor's surgery and there was no one in the immediate vicinity of the deceased except for the two correctional officers," Mr McKay said in his opening address on Monday.
The jury was expected to hear evidence in the weeks-long trial that an escaping inmate was "ideally to be grabbed or taken down" by the correctional officer who was not armed.
That unarmed officer had given chase after being bumped by Mr Johnstone and losing grip of the inmate's belt.
But he slowed and veered away after his armed colleague shouted for him to "get out of the road," jurors were told.
Discussing afterwards with police his decision to shoot, the accused officer said he "went into that mode" after Mr Johnstone failed to heed his call to stop.
He said his first shot was a warning shot, which the Crown disputes, and then missed again with his second shot.
The third shot struck Mr Johnstone, who almost immediately collapsed.
It came about 11 seconds after Mr Johnstone was first seen on CCTV rounding the prison van and stepping onto the road, jurors were told.
The 43-year-old was rushed back to the hospital but died about two hours later.
The accused officer, who has pleaded not guilty and cannot be identified for legal reasons, was later charged with murder.
The trial will likely turn on two key elements: whether the accused intended, when firing the gun, to cause really serious harm to Mr Johnstone and whether he believed it necessary to shoot the escapee to stop him.
If he did believe it necessary, the Crown alleges the officer had no reasonable grounds for that belief.
Mr Johnstone, who stood about 170cm and weighed about 98kg, had earlier been remanded in custody on charges of assault and possession of a stun gun.
After raising concerns in court about receiving medication, he began convulsing in the courthouse's cells and was taken to hospital.
He was discharged to return to Corrective Services custody shortly before his escape.
Defence counsel Philip Strickland SC will deliver an opening address on Tuesday.
