An Illawarra man alleged to have organised the “revenge” shooting of a bikie he believed responsible for the murder of his brother was considered a “nutter” by the very people he is accused of assisting, a jury has heard.
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Lawyers for Robert ‘Boxer Rob’ Nikolovski have told his NSW Supreme Court trial that Nikolovski was regarded as a “loose cannon” in the weeks and months after his brother, Goran Nikolovski, disappeared in October 2011.
The Crown alleges Nikolovski believed one of his brother’s criminal associates, ex-Commanchero bikie Darko Janceski, was behind Goran’s disappearance and suspected murder and helped organise for their close friend, Matthew Paul Wiggins, to shoot Janceski’s at his parents Berkeley home on April 14, 2012.
Nikolovski was charged with being an accessory before the fact to murder, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
In an opening statement to the jury on Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Rohan Cooley outlined the shared history of the major players involved in the case and the events that allegedly led to Janceski’s death.
He said Goran had developed animosity towards a man named Saso Ristevski, a former drug associate who had given evidence against him in a court case in 2004 and who was close friends with Janceski.
When Ristevski was subsequently shot dead in his Lake Heights home on September 28, 2011, suspicion fell on Goran (although police have since ruled this out).
Janceski also believed Goran had killed his mate and allegedly kidnapped and killed Goran in an act of retaliation. Goran’s burnt-out car was found near Macquarie Pass a few days after he disappeared but his body has never been located.
Mr Cooley said a wire tap on Robert Nikolovski’s mobile phone secretly recorded him making numerous serious threats against Janceski’s life in the weeks after Goran’s disappearance, including one in which he said “I could kill him with my bare hands”.
However, defence barrister Greg Woods claims the full suit of telephone calls shows Nikolovski was being “sidelined” by others looking into Goran’s whereabouts at the request of Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle.
“The defence has no problem in conceding that there’s evidence in the recorded conversations of the accused being very angry about the loss and probable killing of his brother,” Mr Woods said.
“He was grievously distressed and his major depression, diagnosed years earlier, was exacerbated by this loss. [But] he was being in effect sidelined - one of the people talking on the phone says he's a nutter. He was regarded as a ‘loose cannon’.
“I’ll be submitting that any notion that Robert Nikolovski was a mastermind in this killing is not a conclusion you would ultimately accept.”
The trial continues.