A trio of tradies have been found not guilty of the attempted murder of a former NSW policeman, who himself was acquitted of murder more than two decades ago.
Sid Morgan was shot in the head in Point Cook, southwest of Melbourne, in 2019 after being called by a friend to help defend his family in a business dispute gone bad.
His longtime friend Daniel Saddik had been accused of stealing money from the property maintenance business he ran with Stephen Tahaney - the man who pulled the trigger shooting Mr Morgan.
Mr Tahaney admitted he shot Mr Morgan but argued in a Victorian Supreme Court trial he'd done so in self-defence.
Mark Dixon and Jack Harvey were also charged with attempted murder, with prosecutors arguing the trio had a joint agreement to harm Mr Morgan, knowing it was probable he would be killed.
But after a weeks-long trial a jury took a couple of hours to determine the men were each not guilty of five charges ranging from attempted murder to recklessly causing injury.
Defence lawyers had argued the trio had not sent death threats in an exchange of messages, but Mr Morgan had.
"You and your brother are about to pay the ultimate price," Mr Morgan wrote in a text to Dixon, also referring to them as "dead men walking".
They also disputed there was any agreement to harm Mr Morgan, noting Mr Dixon had arrived at the scene wearing a hi-vis shirt displaying his company logo.
"Is that the sort of clothing you'd wear when you're going around to kill someone? That doesn't sound right to me," his lawyer Julie Condon told the jury.
Ms Condon said Mr Morgan was the type of man who resorted to violence.
"In 1995 he resorted to his police issue revolver to execute his brother-in-law and that's what he intended to do in 2019 - resort to firearms," she said.
Mr Morgan shot his brother-in-law in the face six times over allegations the man was abusing children.
He stood trial for murder but was acquitted.
He boasted about that shooting before he was shot in Point Cook, telling the men in text messages that "like anything, it gets easier the second time around".
Prosecutor Patrick Bourke told the jury that while Mr Morgan was the type of person to shoot first and ask questions later, the case was not about karma.
"Morgan was a copper when he did that. It's not how we operate," he said.
But he also urged them not to ignore Mr Morgan's past and reputation.
"What we're engaging here in this trial is not whether Sid Morgan got his right whack, but it's whether or not the three accused men committed a very serious violent offence," he said.
