Lisa Margaret Lines, Zacharia Bruckner plead not guilty to attempted murder at South Australian Supreme Court

Alleged lovers Lisa Lines and Zacharia Bruckner have appeared in court in person for the first time to enter their pleas to shocking allegations they tried to knock off Ms Lines’ former partner in a series of convoluted murder plots.

The pair sat in the dock at the South Australian Supreme Court on Monday, with Ms Lines wearing glasses and a polka dot blouse with her hair tied in a bow.

Mr Bruckner wore a green prison jumper.

Police have charged Ms Lines and Mr Bruckner with one count of attempted murder for an alleged kill attempt on Jonathon Hawtin in October 2017 at his Adelaide Hills home and two counts of conspire to commit murder for allegedly plotting to kill Mr Hawtin and his mother Rhonda through a hit man from between December 29, 2021, and November 15, 2023.

A third alleged offender, Letiticia Fortune, is also charged with attempted murder for an alleged attempt on Mr Hawtin’s life while he lay in hospital recovering from the 2017 incident.

On Monday, Ms Lines and Mr Bruckner pleaded not guilty to the charges before Justice Julie McIntyre.

Ms Fortune pleaded not guilty to her charge in Adelaide Magistrates Court last month and she will be arraigned at the Supreme Court in May.

The court was told on Monday the cases of Ms Lines, Mr Bruckner and Ms Fortune would be married up to run together following Ms Fortune’s May appearance.

Police allege the squall of violence started in 2017 when Mr Bruckner allegedly attacked Mr Hawtin with an axe, striking him in the neck.

Mr Bruckner then shot himself with a gun, police allege, so the axe attack would appear to be in self-defence.

Mr Hawtin was left a tetraplegic from the alleged attack.

As he lay in a hospital bed recovering from the axe attack, the police allege Ms Fortune plotted to smother Mr Hawtin with a pillow but was stopped by hospital security guards and fled the scene.

Prosecutors also allege Ms Fortune and Ms Lines were lovers at the time.

Police further claim undercover police operatives secured evidence that Ms Lines and Mr Bruckner conspired to use a hit man to kill Mr Hawtin and his mother.

Police initially believed Mr Hawtin had tried to kill Mr Bruckner after he started a relationship with Ms Lines.

Mr Hawtin was acquitted of attempted murder following a trial at the South Australian Supreme Court in 2019.

Ms Lines left Australia and settled in Taiwan following Mr Hawtin’s acquittal.

She was arrested in November 2023 on the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau and then extradited to Adelaide to face the allegations against her.

At a hearing in December at Adelaide Magistrates Court, the court was told spots of blood had been found on Ms Lines’ tracksuit after the alleged 2017 attack.

Dominic Agresta, appearing for Ms Lines at the time, said “the only inference you can draw from that blood is an inference as to her presence in the shed at some point”.

“The difficulty for the Crown in my submission is that there was no dispute at the trial … that my client entered the garage after the events, where she is said to have seen both Mr Bruckner and Mr Hawtin supine on the ground both bleeding,” he said.

Mr Agresta told the court that Ms Lines’ actions after finding Mr Bruckner and Mr Hawtin bleeding in the shed were “inconsistent” with a murder plot.

She dialled triple-0 and tried to stop the bleeding from both Mr Bruckner and Mr Hawtin, Mr Agresta said.

“It (the triple-0 call) demonstrates there is panic, obvious sincere panic in my client’s voice at the time she made the call,” he said.

Prosecutor Timisha Ward argued the triple-0 call did not mean Ms Lines may not have been a part of the plot.

“There is a reasonable inference to be drawn that Dr Lines called trip zero and assisted Mr Hawtin in order to exculpate herself from involvement in the offending and indeed to disguise the offending as an act of self-defence,” she said.

Ms Lines holds a PhD in social sciences from Flinders University.