Man hid in car boot to kill lover's ex

 

A COUPLE has been convicted of luring the woman’s former lover to a car wash and fatally shooting him in the head.

After deliberating for five-and-a-half hours, a Supreme Court jury of eight men and four women unanimously found Tristan Kay Castle, 37, and Jason Bucca, 26, guilty of murdering Adrian MacDonald at the Big Bucket Carwash at Parafield in February, 2013.

Prosecutors had alleged Castle blamed Mr MacDonald for a break-in at a mutual friend’s house and that she was angry at him over an $10,000 debt owed to a drug dealer they both knew.

They further alleged her new lover, Bucca, was hiding in the boot of a silver Ford sedan driven by Castle and had shot Mr MacDonald, 39, after he reluctantly agreed to get into the car when they met at the car wash.

The court heard that Mr MacDonald tried to flee the car when he realised Bucca was inside the boot with the back seat folded down, and was shot through the hip.

A second shot fired from above missed and the bullet ricocheted onto Mr MacDonald’s hands, chest and face.

“The final shot was a coup de grace through the top of Mr MacDonald’s head as he lay on the ground or was on his hands and knees,” Mr Pearce said.

In her evidence, Castle denied responsibility for the killing, claiming Mr MacDonald was shot by a drug dealer, not her new lover.

She told the jury Bucca was not in the car when the murder took place and that she had no indication the alleged drug dealer was going to shoot Mr MacDonald.

Castle explained that phone records pinpointing Bucca at the scene of the crime were misleading because she had borrowed his phone and had it in the car when the shooting happened.

The jury had earlier heard Castle spent the previous night trying to arrange a meeting at 6.30am with Mr MacDonald to discuss their relationship breakdown and issues over their belongings.

Prosecutors had described the meeting as a fatal ambush while defence lawyers described the incident as a heated altercation that Bucca and Castle had no prior knowledge would turn fatal.

The couple was remanded in custody to face sentencing submissions in February.