THEY planned a daylight drug rip and when ice dealer David King tried desperately to escape, accelerating down a quiet suburban street at Salt Ash, they shot him in the head at close range.
And on Tuesday afternoon, Elijah Cage and Max Lowcock were found guilty of murdering Mr King, a jury satisfied the pair had planned the robbery and brought the gun to the drug deal before Mr King was fatally shot.
A third man, Tyson Stamp, who drove the pair to and from the scene, started 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.
The trio were all acquitted of kidnapping a woman who set up the drug deal and witnessed the shooting, a jury finding she must have made up the allegation about being bundled into their car and driven from the scene.
Cage and Stamp had pleaded guilty to torching the hired Santa Fe used to flee the shooting and all three men will face a sentence hearing in Newcastle Supreme Court in May.
However, Stamp was released on conditional bail late Tuesday afternoon, after he has spent more than two years and four months behind bars awaiting trial.
Mr King, a 45-year-old mid-level methamphetamine dealer from Tanilba Bay, was killed when he was shot once at close range with a shortened shotgun while behind the wheel of a ute in Hideaway Drive on the afternoon of August 29, 2021.
The prosecution case was that Cage and Lowcock had organised to buy drugs from Mr King through an intermediary, a woman who would become the key witness in the trial.
The prosecution said the pair planned to rob Mr King and Cage was recorded in a listening device talking about finding someone to "mug" and "switching rips".
They said the pair used the woman to gain access to Mr King and got him to bring half an ounce of methamphetamine to a drug deal that would ultimately end in his death.
Unfortunately for Mr King, it was a decision he made that may have led to his downfall; he was the one who suggested the two groups drive around into the quieter Hideaway Drive before he was shot.
Once they were there, Cage's demeanour changed and he started to rob Mr King, kicking the woman who had set up the drug deal aside.
At one point, while handing over drugs and cash, Mr King suddenly sped off down Hideaway Drive as Lowcock jumped into the back seat.
The car swerved back and forth before the witness heard a gunshot and the car slammed into a tree.
Mr King was dead and the men quickly fled the scene.
More to come.
