Top judge, new prosecutor hired for Hells Angels trial over the murder of panelbeater Jason De Ieso

One of Australia’s most experienced judges will preside over SA’s most complex criminal trial. Eight men are charged with the shooting murder of Jason De Ieso in 2012.

One of Australia’s most experienced and respected jurists, Brian Martin KC, has been hired to conduct the trial of alleged Hells Angels bikies accused of murdering panelbeater Jason De Ieso.

The Advertiser can also reveal one of Victoria’s most experienced barristers, Nicholas Papas KC, has been hired to prosecute the eight accused – at a cost of almost $20,000 a week.

The trial, which is expected to run for more than six months, is scheduled to start next month after several months of preliminary hearings late last year involving lengthy legal argument over the admissibility of key evidence and other matters.

Chief Justice Chris Kourakis moved to have Mr Martin appointed an auxiliary Justice because many sitting Justices were deemed to have procedural conflicts that ruled them out of presiding over the trial and the expected length of the matter.

“The trial has been assigned to an auxiliary judge because a number of judges of this court have had reason to recuse themselves and because the length of the trial would have disrupted and delayed the timely hearing of other matters by this court,’’ Chief Justice Kourakis said on Monday.

CCTV showing suspects wanted over the murder of Jason De Ieso at his panel repair business in Pooraka in 2012

The trial relates to the 2012 murder of panelbeater Jason De Ieso, who was shot in the head when the eight accused allegedly stormed a Pooraka business looking for a rival Finks bikie.

Police have alleged the murder was the culmination of four days of violent feuding between the Hells Angels and Finks that included a firebombing and several assaults at a tattoo parlour.

The men were arrested and charged in August 2019 following an 18-month covert investigation by Major Crime detectives that painstakingly reconstructed their movements leading up to the alleged murder.

The accused are Ross William Montgomery, 35, Daniel Mark Jalleh, 31, Musa Ali Alzuai, 27, Mohamed Alzuain, 28, Husain Ali Alzuain, 32, Kyle Lloyd Pryde, 32, Seywan Moradi, 33, and Nicholas Sianis, 33.

The accused – all of whom are allegedly Hells Angels members, except Musa Alzuain – have engaged a slew of SA’s top silks and solicitors with their collective fees of more than $100,000 a week being funded by legal aid.

Auxiliary Justice Martin will preside over his first preliminary hearing in the matter on Wednesday, at which an application to adjourn the trial is expected to be made by lawyers for one of the accused.

Justice Brian Martin in the Perth District Court on the first day of the Lloyd Rayney murder trial in 2007.

Auxiliary Justice Martin has unparalleled experience on both sides of the bench as a prosecutor and Judge overseeing lengthy and complex trials.

After almost three decades as a successful prosecutor in SA, he was appointed Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in 1997 and in 1999 was appointed a Justice of SA’s Supreme Court. In 2004, he was appointed Chief Justice of the NT until his retirement in 2010.

In 2012, he was appointed an acting Justice of the WA Supreme Court to preside over the trial of Lloyd Rayney, who was controversially charged with murdering his wife in 2007. He was found not guilty.

Auxiliary Justice Martin has presided over many landmark – and lengthy – criminal trials during his career.

He was the trial Judge for Bradley Murdoch in the Darwin Supreme Court in 2005 in which Murdoch was found guilty of murdering UK tourist Peter Falconio. He also presided over the notorious Snowtown bodies-in-the-barrels murders trial that resulted in serial killers John Bunting, Robert Wagner and James Vlassakis being found guilty of murder and Mark Haydon convicted for helping to dispose of the bodies.

Most recently, auxiliary Justice Martin has been conducting an investigation into the suitability of SkyCity Adelaide to continue to hold the casino licence under the Casino Act and the suitability of SkyCity Entertainment Group Limited to continue to be a close associate of SkyCity Adelaide.

Barrister Nicholas Papas KC

Director of Public Prosecutions Martin Hinton KC engaged Mr Papas after the initial prosecutor within his office, Jim Pearce KC, had to step aside for legal reasons during the voir dire hearing late last year.

Mr Papas is a former Victorian chief magistrate, Crown prosecutor and general manager of Victoria’s legal aid criminal division. He is experienced in both appeal and criminal trials and was most recently acting Director of Public Prosecutions for the NT.