Matthew McLuckie was just 20 when he was killed by Shakira May Adams. Photos: Supplied by Tom McLuckie/Albert McKnight.
The mother of a young man killed by a speeding, meth-using and unlicenced driver says she doesn’t just grieve for the life that was lost, but also for the future that was taken away.
The ACT Supreme Court was filled with people on Wednesday (19 November) when guards led 23-year-old Shakira May Adams into the dock to face her sentencing hearing for causing the fatal car crash that killed 20-year-old Matthew McLuckie three-and-a-half years ago.
In the first of 13 heartbreaking statements read to the court, Amanda McLuckie said, “I feel so blessed that I got to be Matthew’s Mum”.
“When I was told about Matthew’s death, it felt like all the colour had left the world,” she said.
“No words can adequately express how much I miss Matthew or how much I love him.
“The world is a worse place without him in it.”
Tom McLuckie, Matthew’s father, spoke in depth about the loss of his “brave, wonderful, tough boy”.
“Matthew’s death did not just end one life; it ended his countless possibilities,” he said.
“Instead, all those dreams live only in memory.
“There is an empty chair at every table, an ache behind every smile and a silence that grows louder with each passing year.”
Tom spoke of the trauma his family endured through the criminal justice process, including how every statement made in court that downplayed the seriousness of the crime was like another knife in the heart.
“We have felt isolated, unheard and abandoned by the very systems that promised fairness and protection,” he said.
“We have endured relentless public scrutiny, social media abuse and dismissive commentary from those who have never experienced true loss and dismiss our calls for justice as vindictive or cruel.
“These attacks have been encouraged by a justice culture in the ACT that often treats victims as problems to be managed and offenders as causes to be championed.”
He also warned that the reality of the ACT’s criminal justice system was that it was “seriously under-resourced and significantly underfunded”.
His statements were met with clapping from those watching from the courtroom’s gallery.
The Volkswagen Golf, driven by Shakira May Adams, was destroyed in the crash on 19 May 2022. Photo: Tendered to the court.
Matthew’s stepmother Sarah Payne said from the day of his death, there had been “an enduring sadness in everything we do”.
“I hope she feels the weight of what she’s taken from us,” she said about Adams.
Adams was often seen speaking to the guards sitting beside her in the dock during the family’s statements, and occasionally hung her head when Tom spoke.
Prosecutor Trent Hickey said Adams had never held a driver licence, had meth and cannabis in her system and had been awake for a couple of days before the crash.
She bought a stolen Volkswagen Golf for a bag of the drug ‘ice’ before she was captured on footage, played to the courtroom, showing it and another car driving through a red light at an intersection at high speed on the night of 19 May 2022. Witnesses described the two vehicles as racing each other.
Adams then drove the Golf on the wrong side of Hindmarsh Drive at at least 177 km/h and crashed head-on into Matthew’s Holden Astra. He had been heading home from work and died the next day.
Adams received a traumatic brain injury and broke numerous bones in the crash. She needed extensive medical care and was not issued her charges until late 2022.
There were years of legal arguments in the matter, including two unsuccessful attempts by her lawyers to find her unfit to plead due to her brain injury.
She finally pleaded guilty to two charges in August 2025, being culpable driving causing death and driving a motor vehicle without consent. She had her bail revoked and was taken into custody.
During the evidence of psychologist Vanessa Edwige, the court heard Adams had a disadvantaged and traumatic childhood, and more recently had been diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder.
Mr Hickey argued a significant period of full-time jail was required as her objective culpability was extremely high and the impact on Matthew’s family was catastrophic.
Barrister Jon White SC, appearing for Adams, said his client was young and that incarceration would weigh very heavily on her, mostly due to her brain injury.
He asked for her to be sentenced to a short non-parole period with a long period of parole, saying she would need considerable support when she returns to the community.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum said she would hand down her sentence on 17 December.
“This is a case drenched in trauma,” she said during the hearing.
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