Four men who lured drug dealer Victor Codea into Adelaide High carpark ambush found guilty of manslaughter but not murder
Four men who lured drug dealer Victor Codea to a fatal ambush in the Adelaide High School carpark have learned their fate after six months’ deliberation.
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Four men who lured a drug dealer into a fatal carpark ambush because he gave their illegal products a bad online review are killers but did not commit murder, a court has ruled.
There were audible gasps in the Supreme Court on Tuesday as, after six months’ deliberation, Justice Adam Kimber delivered his verdict in the Victor Codea case.
He found Jeremy Dale Sandell, Kain Mazomenos, Thomas Nichols and Thomas Pinnington not guilty of murder.
Instead, he found them guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Under law, His Honour’s verdict means the quartet neither planned nor intended to take Mr Codea’s life when they ambushed him.
All are now liable to serve a maximum life sentence, but do not face the mandatory minimum non-parole period of 20 years.
Nichols, 31, Sandell, 25, Mazomenos, 26, and Pinnington, 25, each pleaded not guilty to murder – Sandell pleaded guilty, instead, to manslaughter.
At trial, prosecutors alleged the August 2020 ambush of Mr Codea was a response to bad online reviews of drugs sold by Sandell, also known as “Winnie Blues”.
An eyewitnesses told the trial that the attack, in the Adelaide High School carpark, felt like “it went for 10 seconds” and involved blows that “were not fairy taps”.
The passage of the quartet’s trial was anything but smooth.
After several days of evidence, it was hit with a “wrecking ball” when Mr Nichols’ original counsel withdrew from the case, saying they could no longer represent him.
It resumed, several days later, in a courtroom that was too small with defence counsel sitting in the jury box.
They argued their clients were more like “keyboard warriors posturing” about themselves in the “underworld melee” of the drug culture than premeditated murderers.
Mr Codea’s “tragic and unnecessary” death, they argued, arose from the “bully-boy chest-thumping” and bravado of “druggies”, not a planned “clockwork” murder.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said they would obtain victim impact statements from Mr Codea’s next of kin but did not know if they would be read aloud in court.
Counsel for the quartet asked sentencing submissions be adjourned until August in order to prepare expect reports.
Jane Abbey KC, for Nichols, asked her client be allowed to attend that hearing by video link.
“It causes him great discomfort and inconvenience to be brought to court (from prison) because he has back pain,” she said.
Justice Kimber said he believed offenders should be in court when victim impact statements were given and said he would only grant Nichol’s application if medical evidence was tendered.
He remanded all four men in custody until August.
Mr Codea’s parents did not comment outside court.
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Originally published as Four men who lured drug dealer Victor Codea into Adelaide High carpark ambush found guilty of manslaughter but not murder
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