Hamad Assaad murder: Alleged lookout faces murder trial

Almost two dozen bullets were fired into Hamad Assaad – the final one into his head – now the man accused of acting as lookout for the killers is standing trial for murder in the NSW Supreme Court.

“I did it for my brother, straight out,” the alleged lookout for a group of assassins said after almost two dozen bullets cut down a man in a western Sydney driveway, a court has heard.
Hamad Assaad was sitting in his car in Georges Hall on October 25, 2016, when a stolen black Audi stopped diagonally across his driveway.
Two masked gunmen got out, approached Mr Assaad and unloaded their pistols into him, the NSW Supreme Court heard on Tuesday.

Hamad Assaad.

Wounded and bleeding, Mr Assaad clambered out of the passenger side and rose to his feet.
One of the fleeing assassins turned and fired the last of their 22 shots.
The bullet hit Mr Assaad in the head and he dropped, he died in the driveway.
The killers have never been identified but their alleged surveillance man and lookout, Greenacre plumber Osama Hawat, is charged with murder or being an accessory to the killing.
Hawat pleaded not guilty to both counts at the beginning of his Supreme Court trial on Tuesday.
He sat silently in the dock as crown prosecutor Tony McCarthy told the jury he had, on multiple times, monitored Mr Assaad's home in the weeks leading up to the attack.
His plumber's van, the prosecutor alleged, was among suspect vehicles captured on CCTV cameras driving past Mr Assaad's home including on the morning of the attack.

“The accused role, the crown says, was to conduct surveillance on the deceased – Hamad Assad’s – residence on morning of the 25th of October, the morning of the murder,” Mr McCarthy said.
“ (Hawat’s role was) to establish his presence at the home and act as look out on nearby street as the murder took place.”
Before heavily armed police pounced on Hawat's home in 2017, eight months after the shooting, he too had been under surveillance, the crown said.
A listening device in his car and home, as well as taps on his phone, allegedly captured him making admissions to his role in the event, Mr McCarthy said.

The scene at Georges Hall after Assaad was shot dead. Picture: AAP

"You know that Hamad at George's Hall? I drove into the street, I drove in the street but nothing else," police allege Hawat told his wife.
"I drove in, I don’t think they know, it had to be done – straight up”
"I did it for my brother, straight out."
Hawat, police allege, told an unknown male in another recording he was feeling stressed after police spoke to his father about his van.

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“Yeah, nah bro, I just don’t know how could they know," the unknown man allegedly responded.
The crown case hinges on Hawat's knowledge that he was consciously entering into an "agreement" with the killers that he knew would result in the murder of Mr Assaad, the jury were told.
Hawat's lawyers briefly made only brief comments about the crown case on Tuesday, noting the jury would have to decide the plumber's "state of mind" – what he allegedly knew and when he knew it – about the plans of the men who ultimately gunned down Mr Assaad.