Melbourne underworld determine George Marrogi was not the shooter within the daylight homicide of a person who was lured into visiting a procuring centre, his legal professionals have claimed.
Whereas he could have offered the getaway automobile or given the killer bullets, Marrogi didn’t pull the set off, the Courtroom of Enchantment was instructed on Tuesday.
Marrogi, 34, is serving a 32-year jail sentence for capturing Kadir Ors lifeless as he sat at a bus cease at Campbellfield procuring plaza in September 2016.
A Supreme Courtroom jury discovered him responsible of the homicide in 2021, at Marrogi’s fourth trial over the capturing.
He arrived at an Officeworks automobile park in a stolen crimson Holden Commodore on the afternoon of September 26, earlier than he bought out of the automobile and fired 13 pictures at Mr Ors, hitting him within the again, leg, hip and buttocks.
Justice Paul Coghlan, who sentenced Marrogi in April 2022 in his ultimate case earlier than retiring, mentioned the assault was “one of the vital blatant examples of homicide” he had seen.
Marrogi, who’s interesting his homicide conviction, has maintained his innocence all through the authorized course of.
His barrister Peter Morrissey SC pointed to gaps in proof within the prosecution’s case at trial, in what he mentioned was a circumstantial case in opposition to his shopper.
“There’s a affordable risk that George Marrogi is just not the shooter, anyone else was,” he instructed the court docket.
Apart from Marrogi’s DNA being discovered on a bit of cardboard from an ammunition packet left within the Commodore, he mentioned nothing else had positioned him contained in the getaway automobile.
“No different piece of proof says that George Marrogi needed to be the shooter,” he mentioned.
The stolen Commodore, which was adopted by a white Jeep after the capturing, was later discovered by police on a suburban Broadmeadows avenue.
Mr Morrissey mentioned it was “ludicrous” that prosecutors claimed Marrogi had ditched the automobile and ran away by means of a park.
“It’s fanciful {that a} hunted man would depart a car, that’s clearly nonetheless in a position to be pushed, on foot instantly,” he mentioned.
“He does not have security and does not have a raise. The automobile is a refuge. The thought he would hop out and run, on the peril of being captured, shot, run over… is ludicrous.”
The attraction earlier than Justices Phillip Priest, Cameron Macaulay and Kim Hargrave continues.
Marrogi had his minimal jail time period elevated by 5 years final month, after admitting to working a drug trafficking operation together with his girlfriend whereas he was behind bars.
