Jury out in boot murder case
A Supreme Court jury has retired to consider its verdict in the case of two brothers accused of murdering a businessman whose body was discovered wrapped in plastic in the boot of his car.
Brothers Ambrose and Xavier Clarke have been on trial in the Supreme Court, fighting allegations they murdered businessman Peter Davis whose body was discovered in the boot of his car at the Great Eastern Motor Lodge in May 2011.
After hearing seven weeks of evidence, the jury retired to consider its verdict at 3.45pm.
The jury has been sent home for the night and will resume their deliberations tomorrow.
The prosecution had alleged the brothers lured Mr Davis to a Malaga business under the guise of a work job where he was attacked, knocked unconscious and wrapped in plastic.
The jury has heard the plastic had been purchased the day before by Ambrose Clarke from a work acquaintance for a "small job".
Xavier Clarke's thumb prints were discovered on the plastic.
The prosecution alleged Ambrose Clarke was angry and frustrated by his former business associate's refusal to repay about $330,000 he believed he was owed after the breakdown of their business relationship about two years earlier.
Attempts to recover his money through lawyers and a man he believed was a licensed debt collector were unsuccessful.
Ambrose Clarke had denied killing his former workmate, testifying that he was moving on with his life and felt positive when he learnt Mr Davis was repaying money to another investor, telling the jury this showed Mr Davis had money to pay his debts.
In his closing address, his defence lawyer Paul Yovich had argued Mr Clarke did not have a motive to kill Mr Davis but rather the opposite because "dead men don't pay their debts".
Ambrose Clarke had told the jury he went to a post office, a building site where he dropped off the plastic before heading to church on the morning Mr Davis died.
Defence lawyer Tony Elliott suggested to the jury there was an innocent explanation for Xavier Clarke's fingerprints being on the plastic and they had got there when he had dropped round to his brother's house the night before and helped him fold the plastic.
He also suggested Xavier Clarke's DNA ended up on Mr Davis' trousers through a secondary transfer from the plastic. \
The jury also heard evidence about a "demolition derby" in the Great Eastern Motor Lodge carpark between Ambrose Clarke and Mr Davis' son Kurt on the evening of May 30, 2011.
Kurt Davis had been out looking for his father when he thought he saw Ambrose Clarke near the motel and he accidentally turned into the carpark, where he spotted his father's car.
Ambrose Clarke had claimed he had gone to the motel to meet a debt collector after being told earlier that day he had his money.
However, prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo had alleged the men had gone to the motel to dispose of the body.
