IT was about 4am on a morning in May last year when two masked men began banging on the front door of a home at Gateshead, terrifying three young children asleep inside.
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And as the children screamed and huddled together in the corner of the loungeroom, a 42-year-old man woken from his sleep rushed to the front window and opened the curtain to see who was outside.
Within a second of the curtains parting, 24-year-old Lincoln Adams, the masked man armed with a sawn-off single barrel shotgun, pulled the trigger, the bullet passing through the window and striking the victim in the upper right thigh.
As the victim, fearful of being shot again, tried to drag himself to a covered position and the children "squealed" and cried in fear, the masked men outside ran back to their getaway car and fled.
The pair, and others, had spent a few days planning what was supposed to be a home invasion; their target a safe inside the home that supposedly contained cash.
But Adams had pulled the trigger at the first sign of anyone inside, much to the chagrin of the man who was with him, 40-year-old James David Earle.
"Ur boyfriend is a f---ing cowboy," Earle messaged a woman in the aftermath of the shooting. "What's wrong with the c--- doing f---ing stupid shit, f---ing up my life along with his and yours. "There was kids there. They were screaming and he did what he did. I can't get it out of my head, them kids screaming then Linc does that what the f--- is wrong with him."
Adams and Earle both appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday via audio visual link from jail and pleaded guilty to their roles in the shooting.
Adams was the principle offender, he had the gun and pulled the trigger.
Having a gun was part of the plan, Adams later admitted to police. But shooting someone wasn't.
While Earle was guilty on the basis of an extended joint criminal enterprise; he was part of the planning, knew about the gun and was there and ready to assist.
A third person, 25-year-old Hope Lesley Louise Dawson-Green, pleaded guilty to hindering the discovery of evidence and all three will next appear in Newcastle District Court in August to get a sentence date.
A fourth person, Sarah Winwood, once charged with discharging the firearm alongside Earle and Adams, also had her matter mentioned on Wednesday.
Ms Winwood is now charged only with hindering the discovery of evidence, police alleging she destroyed a black jacket linked to the shooting.
Her matter was adjourned to July 31 and may resolve in the local court.
The victim was taken to John Hunter Hospital and underwent four surgeries to remove shotgun pellets from his thigh.
He also had to undergo skin grafts and was readmitted to hospital twice due to complications from his injuries.
Detectives launched an investigation and connected Adams to the shooting that morning when he was spotted near the getaway car.
He was arrested and later made admissions, saying he had consumed four grams of cocaine before the shooting.
They also found DNA and fingerprints that linked Adams and Earle to the getaway car.
