A JURY has retired to begin determining the fate of two men accused of murdering David King at Salt Ash in what prosecutors allege was a "drug rip gone wrong".
Elijah Cage and Max Lowcock have spent the past six weeks on trial in Newcastle Supreme Court accused of murdering Mr King, who was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun while allegedly trying to flee a robbery in Hideaway Drive on August 29, 2021.
A third man, Tyson Stamp, who drove the pair from the scene of the shooting, began the trial charged with murder but his barrister, Public Defender Peter Krisenthal, successfully applied for a directed verdict of not guilty at the conclusion of the prosecution case.
All three men are accused of kidnapping a woman who facilitated the drug deal and witnessed the lead-up to the shooting. They have pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution say telephone intercepts showed the men were planning a robbery and must have brought the gun, while the defence say the men only went to Salt Ash to buy drugs and the crucial evidence of a woman pointed to Mr King being the one armed with the firearm.
During her summing up, Justice Dina Yehia called the firearm issue an "essential fact", telling the jury the prosecution had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that it was Mr Cage and Mr Lowcock who brought the gun to the meeting at Salt Ash.
She said if prosecutors could not exclude the possibility that the gun was Mr King's then their case must fail and the men must be acquitted of murder.
The defence say there was no kidnapping after the shooting and the woman went with the men willingly and made up the claim that she was abducted.
As well as the alleged murder and kidnapping, Mr Cage and Mr Stamp pleaded guilty at the outset of the trial to torching the rented Hyundai Sante Fe that they used to flee Hideaway Drive.
