
A magistrate has dismissed two charges laid against a Comanchero bikie who was accused of shooting a fellow outlaw and trying to cover up the crime with some "backyard surgery".
Connor John Manns, 22, faced charges of inflicting actual bodily harm and attempted wounding following an apparent incident on December 16 last year.
The Batemans Bay man pleaded not guilty and was set to fight the allegations at a two-day hearing next week.
But on Wednesday, prosecutor Angus Brown told the ACT Magistrates Court that his office would not offer any evidence.
He did not explain why, and Magistrate Glenn Theakston accordingly dismissed both charges.
In documents previously tendered to the court, police said Mr Manns was with fellow Comanchero gangster Sugimatatihuna Mena at "an unknown location" in Tuggeranong at the time in question.
According to police, Mr Manns fired a single bullet consistent with .22 calibre ammunition, penetrating Mr Mena's left thigh.
Officers were alerted later that night that Mr Mena was receiving treatment for a gunshot wound at Canberra Hospital.
When questioned, Mr Mena told them that he thought he had been shot or hit with a rock by someone who was driving past him as he walked down a street several hours earlier.
But the next day, ACT Corrective Services gave investigators from the bikie-busting Taskforce Nemesis police unit recordings of two phone calls between Mr Manns and Alexander Maconochie Centre prison inmate Daniel Grech.
The calls were both made before Mr Mena's trip to hospital, where doctors ultimately pulled a bullet out of his upper thigh.
"During the first telephone call, [Mr Manns] stated that he had shot 'Sugi' in the leg and they were attempting to remove the bullet," police alleged in court documents.
"[Mr Manns] refers to 'Sug' and a third person could be heard speaking in the background.
"All three individuals can be heard laughing about it."
In the second phone call, police alleged, Grech asked Mr Manns: "How's the backyard surgery going?"
Mr Manns was also charged with failing to stop for police after allegedly picking Mr Mena up from hospital and speeding away in a Toyota Camry, pursued by an officer who had just collected the bullet for forensic examination.
That charge, to which he has pleaded not guilty, is being dealt with in separate proceedings.