Brincat was a notorious armed robber.
Police claim he carried out 40 armed robberies in Victoria, SA and
Western Australia over seven years.
His trademark was to run into a bank, pull a gun, demand
large denomination notes and then run up to 500 metres
to his getaway car.
Hentschel and Brincat were also charged over the murder of Michael
Marshall on October 25, 2003.
Police said
Marshall, a drug dealer, hotdog salesman and former kickboxer, was standing outside the house in
Joy Street when he was fired upon about 6.30pm.
Marshall was shot up to five times in the head
with a handgun in front of his five-year-old son and girlfriend after arriving
home.
Brincat
and Hentschel were arrested less than six hours after Marshall was killed.
The pair were in a Toyota van near the
Elsternwick hotel at the corner of Glenhuntly Road and the Nepean Highway.
Brincat
and Hentschel were remanded in custody to
appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court.
On November 13, 2003, two weeks after the Marshall murder,
Hentschell was interviewed over the
slaying of Jason Moran.
He spent three hours being questioned.
Hentschell was asked about his whereabouts and knowledge of the killings.
Detective-Sergeant Stuart Bateson told Melbourne Magistrates' Court earlier
that security camera footage showed a balaclava-clad man with a shotgun being
dropped at the scene in a white Toyota Hiace and running towards the victims'
van.
The footage, from the Cross Keys Hotel security camera, then shows the man
running from the carpark and into parkland.
Det-Sgt Bateson said Hentschell and Brincat were arrested in a white Toyota
Hiace van a short time after Marshall was shot.
"(The van) is identical in appearance to that which is depicted on
security camera footage from the Cross Keys Hotel," he said.
The court heard the white van the pair were arrested in belonged to Mr
Hentschell.
Det-Sgt Bateson said witnesses at the Moran murder scene had helped police
develop photofits of the driver of the white van.
"And that description is very similar to the respondent (Mr Hentschel),"
he said.
Det-Sgt Bateson told the court Purana detectives had established
similarities between the murder cases, including:
A LONE gunman assisted by a driver was responsible in each case.
THE assailants were lying in wait for the victims in both cases.
THE gunman was dropped at the scene by his driver in both cases.
THE gunman fled on foot in both cases.
THE calibre of the guns used in each case was identical.
Witnesses to each crime had given similar descriptions of the gunman and
driver.
The court heard police would allege Mr Hentschell used his own car to drop off
the gunman who killed Marshall.
Defence lawyer Nicola Gobbo said Mr
Hentschell had been in solitary
confinement since his arrest for his own protection.
Magistrate Clive Alsop ordered Mr
Hentschell's transfer into the custody of
police for up to eight hours so they could interview him at the St Kilda Rd
police complex.
Mr Hentschel, wearing a grey tracksuit and
glasses, agreed in court that he understood he had the right to refuse to answer
questions.
Mr Hentschel was returned to the custody centre
by detectives after three hours.
On March 1, 2005 a court was told that Carl Williams ordered that
criminal Jason Moran be murdered on the
anniversary of the killing of his half-brother Mark
Moran.
Williams
allegedly wanted Jason Moran to be shot on June
14, 2003. Mark Moran had been gunned down outside
his Aberfeldie home on June 15, 2000.
It was alleged in court that Williams
ordered the hit in retaliation for being shot in the stomach by one of the Moran
brothers in 1999.
However, it was alleged the plan failed after Williams'
purported accomplice, Alfonso Traglia (arrested on August 18, 2004), failed to identify Jason
Moran at a junior football clinic on the intended day of the murder.
A week later, on June 21, 2003, Williams'
co-accused Victor Brincat allegedly shot Moran and Pasquale Barbaro as the pair
sat in a van with 10 children after attending an Auskick football clinic at the
Cross Keys Reserve on Pascoe Vale Road, Essendon North.
Williams, Brincat
and Traglia appeared in a committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court
charged with the men's murder.
The two gangland murder hearings were being held
simultaneously because the case against the three accused relied on the evidence
of supergrass Mr X.
In January Mr X was sentenced to a minimum of 10
years' jail for his involvement in Marshall's
murder.
The court also heard that Mr X had provided
Purana taskforce detectives, investigating underworld murders, with a statement
connected to the murder of Mark Moran.
Mr X told police he had driven Williams
to and from an area close to Mark Moran's home on the night of the shooting.
During the hearing, the three accused sat in a
secure dock behind security glass and flanked by five armed guards.
In his opening, prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, said
Williams ordered the murders of Jason Moran and Marshall
but Barbaro was an unfortunate victim, in "the wrong place at the wrong
time".
Mr Horgan said Brincat
drove to a nearby street
and was picked up by Mr X, who then dropped him off near the park filled with
children.
He said Brincat, carrying a sawn-off shotgun and hand gun, walked up
to the van and shot the two men dead.
Both were shot in the head, and Moran
also in the upper back.
A security camera at the Cross Keys Hotel, next
to the park, recorded the shooting.
Brincat then fled to a Ford sedan, registered to Williams'
father, George.
The court heard the car was sold two days later.
Mr Horgan said Mr X would give evidence that he
carried out surveillance on the home of Michael
Marshall on at least 30 occasions before the murder.
He said Williams
ordered the murder of Marshall, who was
involved in the illegal drugs trade, but said the motivation for the killing
remains unclear.
"(Mr X) would say that the murder was
organised by Carl Williams and he engaged Victor
Brincat," Mr Horgan said.
At the time of the killing, Brincat
was the
partner of Michelle Mircieca, Williams' sister-in-law.
Mr Horgan said the car carrying Mr X and Brincat
was under police surveillance in the period before the murder.
"Marshall
pulled into Joy Street, South Yarra, with his five-year-old son beside him in
the front," Mr Horgan said. "Brincat ran forward and at almost contact
range, if not contact range, fired four to five shots, leaving him (Marshall)
dying on the roadway."
He said Brincat ran from the scene before he was
picked up by Mr X and the pair drove to a flat in Melbourne's south. They were
to meet Williams, but were arrested in
Elsternwick.
On March 1, 2007, a chilling
recording of the murder of Marshall was released by the
Supreme Court.
It reveals his killers stalking him outside his
home.
The recording was made by a police bug hidden in
the car used by the killers.
Police believe Marshall's five-year-old
son was lucky to escape when a gunman shot his father.
The gunman told police he planned to
ambush his victim inside the car, which police believe would have
resulted in the boy being shot during the attack.
"At no stage during the
altercation did I see or realise that Marshall's son was still with
him," the gunman said.
He said fugitive drug boss Tony Mokbel was prepared to pay $300,000
for the murder and put $50,000 as a down-payment.
The gunman can be heard telling his
driver to "look natural" as they approached Marshall's home
in Williams Road, South Yarra.
The transcript of the tape is as follows:
Mr A: That car could be turning off.
Mr X: Yeah that's what I'm worried about.
Mr A: Just duck down.
Mr X: Nah doing a U-turn.
Mr A: Just duck down anyway.
Mr X: (inaudible)
Mr A: Yeah and I can see everything. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mr X: Can you see down there now?
Mr A: Yeah perfect...(inaudible)
Mr X: Oh fuckin' rat. Just get down.
Mr A: Or just pretend, can you reverse out?. Go for a walk...(inaudible)
(inaudible conversation/sound of car door)
Mr A: Look natural when you sit in the car you can probably put this back over here.
Mr X: I'll see if he comes out looking or anything...That's him, ready.
Mr A: Yep. Drive faster, faster
Mr X: He's parking behind the fence
Mr A: Faster!
Mr X: You're right.
Mr A: Faster! Stop here.
Mr X: No. Here, go.
(Mr A exits the car and shoots Michael Marshall)
Mr X: Get in, get down. Nice and down, stay down. Stay down.
Mr A: Straight down, don't turn right, straight down.
Mr X: Yeah I am. (police scanner in background)
Mr X: I have to.
Mr A: mm
Mr X: Who have I got behind?
(scanner in background)
Mr X: Stay down.
Mr A: Sorry?
Mr X: Down.
Mr A: Yep.
Mr X: Do you want me to go down a side street? Stay down.
Mr A: (inaudible)
Mr X: Get down. Stay down, stay down.
(scanner in background, operator giving job of a male has been shot)
Mr X:Can you stay down?
Mr A: Yeah....(inaudible)
Mr X: Stay down there's a lot of traffic behind us and I'm just going to go up a side street here.
Mr A: Clear?
Mr X: Yeah we're right no one's behind us.
Mr A: (inaudible)
Mr X: Oh up there?
Mr A: Yeah...(inaudible)
Mr X: Yep, yep all right. You changed, ready, everything?
Mr A: (inaudible)
