WHAT began with a $20,000 car being stolen as collateral to settle a drug debt ended in Jeremia Iskander's murder, a West Australian court has heard.
Damien Phillip Mathews and Hayden Shane Wayne Joseph are on trial in the West Australian Supreme Court for the murder of the 21-year-old, who was shot in the chest at close range on December 2, 2011.
Prosecutor Amanda Forrester said in her opening address on Monday that Mathews fired the fatal shot, but Joseph was involved in its planning and therefore equally culpable.
The court heard Mr Iskander had been friends with Joseph for several years, but they had fallen out because Joseph owed him money.
Ms Forrester said two of Joseph's cars, including one he estimated to be worth $20,000, were stolen to force him to pay his debt.
She said Joseph believed Mr Iskander was driving the car and doing burnouts, "rubbing his nose" in his loss.
The court heard Joseph and Mathews confronted Mr Iskander in a driveway and the three men, as well as a woman who accompanied the accused men, had an argument.
Mr Iskander said he wanted to have a "one-on-one" with Joseph, Ms Forrester said.
Instead, Mathews had shot Mr Iskander in the chest and then fled with Joseph.
An ambulance took Mr Iskander to Joondalup Health Campus, where he died.
In the lead-up to the murder and the hours after it, Joseph sent many text messages to friends, indicating in one message he was responsible for Mr Iskander's death, Ms Forrester said.
Joseph and Mathews set fire to the car to destroy evidence and went missing for nine days until they finally turned themselves in, she said.
Police say they found four unfired bullets in the driveway that the prosecution claims came from the gun used in the killing, but no weapon has been found.
However, defence lawyer Vesna Amidzic, representing Joseph, said the entire incident was "completely unexpected".
Colin Lovitt, representing Mathews, said one of the key witnesses, who claimed to have seen his client with a gun, was unreliable and biased.
"A man is dead, but that doesn't mean he's been killed by someone," he said.
Mr Lovitt said Mr Iskander was a violent bully who had a "keen interest" in guns.
"He was someone who liked to throw his weight around," Mr Lovitt said.
It was Mr Iskander who had a gun in his trousers and who struggled with Mathews over the weapon, Mr Lovitt said.
He said it was during the struggle that a shot was fired, but not deliberately.
"They (the accused men) shouldn't be made to pay a price over and above for what they did," Mr Lovitt said.
"There's no criminal responsibility at all."
He said the fact that they did something as "stupid" as burning the car did not mean they were guilty of murder.
The trial is set down for four weeks.
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