Lewis Caine

A jury was told that Caine mixed with underworld figures — including those killed in the gangland war.

Prosecutor David Parsons, SC said that old friends of Caine would testify that he was involved in Melbourne's underworld feud.

A friend would say he knew Andrew Veniamin and Mick Gatto, who was acquitted of Veniamin's murder.

He was a friend of Carl Williams' and was seen dining with him a few nights before his death.

A martial arts expert, Caine was convicted of beating David Templeton to death outside Lazars nightclub in King Street in 1988.

Caine, 39, was found dead on May 8, 2004.

He died from a .38 hollow-point bullet fired into his skull at short range.

His body was found in a Brunswick street.

Caine had allegedly taken a contract to kill ''Carlton Crew'' boss, Mario Condello but had not fulfilled it.

Evangelos Goussis (left) and Keith George Faure, 54, were later arrested.

They pleaded not guilty to the murder.

Caine's girlfriend and solicitor, Zarah Garde-Wilson named her law firm Garde-Wilson & Caine after her dead boyfriend.

She also applied to have a child using sperm taken after his death.

She was also believed to be having an affair with drug 'king-pin' Tony Mokbel before he fled Australia in March 2006.

On October 11, 2005, the trial began into the shooting of Caine.

Before his death, according to associates, Caine's mood changed and he questioned the loyalty of "those around him".

According to prosecutor David Parsons, SC, Caine, Faure and Goussis had shared information about the whereabouts of a member of the "Carlton Mob".

On May 8 the three men drank at Carlton's Plough and Harrow Hotel (formerly the Canada Hotel) and left together.

Mr Parsons said there was then a "massive shift in allegiance".

Faure was described as a clever man with "muscle" — who would never be mistaken for a boy scout.

A barrister for Goussis, a former member of an Australian Olympic boxing squad, said he was an associate of four men who had been shot and killed.

"You're going to hear in this trial things that you'd normally expect to hear on TV, and to see on TV," Mr Parsons told the jury.

"You're going to hear about clandestine meetings, you're going to hear about shootings, you're going to hear about people who carry guns and you're going to hear about some underworld figures that you have heard about and seen on TV over the last couple of years."

Faure and Goussis, he said, had told police a "pack of lies" about Caine's shooting — which Goussis later admitted he'd committed in self-defence, when Caine allegedly pulled a gun on him in a car after they left the hotel.

Mr Parsons said "the bottom line is that these two men were in a joint act of murdering".

Mr Parsons said Faure and Goussis, in the days after Caine's death, constructed lies that they were not at the scene, then claimed Goussis acted in self-defence.

James Montgomery, for Faure, said Mr Parsons' opening was more suited to the smoke and mirrors of the "Spiegeltent outside the Arts Centre".

Mr Montgomery said it defied common sense Faure would drink for two hours with Caine in front of witnesses and then be a party to shooting him.

Remy van de Wiel, QC, for Goussis, said Caine loved guns and that after Goussis' friend Nik Radev and three others were killed there was a good reason for Goussis to be armed.

On October 13, 2005, the manager of the Plough and Harrow Hotel, former footballer David Rhys-Jones, spoke of Caine, a patron who was once asked to leave the hotel and told not to return.

Giving evidence in the trial of Faure and Goussis, Mr Rhys-Jones described Caine in the Supreme Court as intimidating, unpredictable and "very edgy".

Mr Rhys-Jones said he stayed at Crown casino on May 8, the night Caine was shot, after attending a Carlton Football Club function.

A hotel customer told him the next day a body found in Brunswick was believed to be Caine's, and when Faure and Goussis arrived for a drink Faure asked if Caine had been seen.

Mr Rhys-Jones said he had told Faure he'd heard "second-hand" that it was Caine who'd been shot and that Faure seemed a bit surprised.

When Faure returned to the hotel on May 15, 2005 Mr Rhys-Jones took him upstairs to show him the security camera system.

He said he knew Faure had been in the hotel with Caine and had told him that "if you want to alleviate any fears I can take you up and show you, you know … you wouldn't be seen on camera where you were sitting anyway".

Asked by prosecutor David Parsons, SC, whose fears he was trying to alleviate, he replied: "No, just if he didn't want any link to the situation."

Mr Rhys-Jones said it was "probably a mistake" to show Faure the system, but Faure wasn't fazed "one inch".

He told Faure's counsel James Montgomery that Faure said he did not want staff lying about his presence because "he's got nothing to hide".

Evangelos Goussis faced court over the Caine murder in November 2005.

He was found guilty.

On May 3, 2006 Keith Faure (left) was sentenced to a minimum of 19 years in jail in the Supreme Court for the Lewis Moran hit and the murder of Lewis Caine six weeks later.

Justice Bernard Teague said missing underworld figure Tony Mokbel was one of two men who agreed to pay $150,000 for the execution of Lewis Moran.

Justice Teague fixed a 19-year minimum jail term for Keith Faure, who pleaded guilty to murdering Moran.

Appearing in court via videolink from a remote location, Faure was sentenced for the Moran killing and the separate murder of Lewis Caine.

Justice Teague jailed Faure, of Norlane, for life for Moran's murder and 24 years for the murder of Caine.

He said in imposing the 19-year minimum that Faure agreed to give prosecution evidence and co-operate with authorities over the murder of Lewis Moran.

Faure had agreed to cooperate with authorities and had made an extensive statement about his role in the murder of Lewis Moran.

He had also promised to help police in their investigation of another case.

On the night of the Moran killing, Faure took three firearms and two balaclavas as he drove the two gunmen to a location close to the club.

After the shootings, he drove them away.

Justice Teague said the Moran murder was a callous, planned, premeditated execution for money.

"To some people, life is not sacred, as it should be. To some people, life is cheap," he said.

Outside court, Lewis Moran's widow, Judith Moran, told reporters she was "shattered".

In a separate hearing, Justice Teague sentenced former boxer Evangelos Goussis, 38, to 20 years' jail, with a 15-year minimum, for the murder of Lewis Caine.

He said Goussis had said he fired the shot that killed Caine, who appeared to have been fired at when he was sitting in the back seat of a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Justice Teague said Goussis and Keith Faure had been drinking with Caine at a Carlton hotel shortly before the shooting.

He said all three men had close contacts within rival camps that were seen to be engaged in retributive killings.

Sean Jason Sonnet, 38, never intended to kill Condello, but was acting out a ruse because he was afraid of ending up like Caine, a court was told.

Underworld identity Carl Williams engaged Sonnet to murder Condello in revenge for the killing of gangland hitman Andrew "Benji" Veniamin by Dominic "Mick" Gatto in 2004, the Victorian Supreme Court was told.

Sonnet, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with three others to murder Condello in June 2004, agreed to the offer because he owed Williams money and was in fear of his life.

Barrister John Desmond, opening the defence case for Sonnet, said Melbourne's gangland was a world of consequences where "for every action or inaction, as in the case of Lewis Caine, there is an equal and opposite reaction".

"Sonnet was aware of this and Sonnet was in fear of his life," Mr Desmond told the court.

"He said he would (kill Condello) without intending to do it.

"He wanted to get Williams off his back for the significant debt he owed Williams."

Mr Desmond said Sonnet was acting out his ruse when he was arrested, carrying two loaded handguns, with a second man, Gregg Hilderbrandt, near Condello's house in the Melbourne suburb of East Brighton just after 7am on June 9, 2004.

Sonnet knew Condello was not living at the house at the time and was residing at his city apartment. But he convinced Williams and Hilderbrandt that was not the case and that Condello could be ambushed while taking his dog for an early-morning walk.

"Condello was never going to be shot, certainly not by Sean Sonnet," Mr Desmond said.

"Condello wasn't present and Sonnet knew it. It was a sham. It wasn't genuine at all."

Sonnet was trying to string Williams and the others along and drag out the plan because Williams had told him Condello was about to be arrested for conspiring to kill Williams.

"Time was becoming of the essence," Mr Desmond told the jury yesterday.

Sonnet was so afraid that he had been living in motels in the days before his arrest.

Condello was arrested on June 17 and charged with trying to hire a hitman to murder Williams and his father, George.

Mr Desmond said police had Sonnet, Hilderbrandt, Williams and a fourth man, Michael Thorneycroft, under constant surveillance in the days leading up to the arrests on June 9, 2004, and could have picked them up at any time.

But the police waited until the last minute to help strengthen their case.

Mr Sonnet has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to murder.

The trial, before judge Betty King, is continuing.