Two men who allegedly killed Sydney student Jamie Gao during a drug deal hatched the plot as a joint criminal enterprise, a court has heard.
Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara today went on trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court for the murder of the University of Technology Sydney student.
The court heard the two men allegedly killed 20-year-old Mr Gao in a storage unit at Padstow in May 2014.
In his opening address, crown prosecutor Chris Maxwell told the court CCTV cameras captured Mr Gao entering the Rent A Space storage unit at 1:45pm on May 20.
At 2:18pm on the same day, the same footage showed Rogerson and McNamara emerging from the storage unit, dragging a silver surfboard bag and lifting it into a station wagon.
The crown told the court Mr Gao's body was found by a fisherman floating in the sea off Cronulla six days later.
The body was in a silver surfboard bag, which was bound in a blue tarpaulin tied with ropes.
The crown told the court a post-mortem conducted on the body revealed Mr Gao died of wounds caused by a 0.25-calibre handgun, and the doctor who performed the procedure would give evidence at the trial.
"He will say the cause of death was by two gunshot wounds to the chest, one of which perforated a major artery to the heart," Mr Maxwell said.
Mr Maxwell told the jury it was the crown's case that Mr Gao was murdered during the period after he entered the storage unit and when his body was dragged from the shed by the accused.
"What is abundantly clear is that Mr Gao was shot down behind closed doors at a point in time during this period," he said.
He told the jury the crown would not be able to establish which of the accused men was the shooter, but said that was not necessary to prove their guilt.
"Both were part of a joint criminal enterprise to kill, or cause serious injury, to Jamie Gao," he said.
Court told Gao met McNamara at a Sydney hotel
The court also heard that Mr Gao met McNamara on a number of occasions at the Meridien Hotel in Hurstville on the night, and in the weeks, before his death to arrange a major drug deal.
Crown prosecutor Chris Maxwell told the court Mr Gao told his cousin that "street-level drug deals were below him" and that "if you're going to do a deal you're better to do it in one big go".
The court heard that Mr Gao told his cousin that the deal with McNamara was "going to be massive" and that it "he was going to be rich".
Mr Maxwell told the court Mr Gao went to the meeting carrying 2.78 kilograms of methamphetamine, known as ice.
"He went to that meeting and stepped into that storage shed with the expectation that what was going to happen there was going to make him very rich," he said.
"Instead he was shot and killed ... and his body dumped out to sea."
Mr Maxwell told the jury the ice that Mr Gao took to the storage shed was later found in two separate parcels in McNamara's car at the Cote D'Azur apartments at Cronulla two days after Mr Gao's remains were found.
The drugs were secreted in two brown pillow cases, one of which was in a backpack found in the car.
The court heard Mr Gao first met Glen McNamara in early 2014 when he was acting as a Cantonese interpreter for a friend who was facing drugs charges.
Mr Gao's friend hired McNamara as a private investigator.
The crown will continue its opening address on Tuesday.
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