Pair played game of ‘cat and mouse’ with George Garmo before slaying, court hears
IT WAS Valentine’s Day, 2015, when Gwar “George” Garmo, 20, was found lying dead in a pool of blood on a stranger’s driveway in western Sydney. Two men are on trial for his murder.
NSW
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IT WAS Valentine’s Day when Gwar “George” Garmo was found lying dead in a pool of blood on a stranger’s driveway in western Sydney in 2015.
The 20-year-old had screamed for his girlfriend to get in a car with her friend as he sprinted away from his alleged attackers.
For the next few minutes he was allegedly hunted down in a deadly game of cat and mouse that was detailed in court last week.
His blood stains on rear fences and footpaths showed the desperate path he ran before he was fatally stabbed and collapsed on the driveway of a home on Garnet Street in Bossley Park.
In his opening address to a NSW Supreme Court last week, Crown prosecutor Craig Patrick, SC, told a jury Mr Garmo first had his fingers sliced with a 25-centimetre knife during a fight with Wade Martinez and Jake Tortell on a street in Wetherill Park about 10pm on February 14 2015.
It is alleged Martinez and Tortell jumped into a black Lexus armed with a knife and drove around nearby streets. They eventually cornered Mr Garmo who was hiding in a friend’s Toyota Camry on Mulligan Street.
Mr Garmo allegedly ran from the Camry in the direction of Garnet Street, with Tortell running after him and Martinez driving the Lexus in his direction.
About 11.20pm – more than an hour after the original confrontation – Carlo Gonzo returned to his home in Garnet Street and found Mr Garmo dead in the driveway.
The court heard he was stabbed at least eight times and fatally stabbed in the chest, but there were no witnesses to his actual death.
Mr Patrick told the jury Martinez and Tortell were part of a joint criminal enterprise to cause serious injury or kill the deceased, and because they had entered into an agreement to do this it did not matter who fatally stabbed Mr Garmo.
When police located the black Lexus in a Bonnyrigg carpark they found Martinez’s drivers licence and Mr Garmo’s blood inside.
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Martinez has pleaded not guilty to the murder and his defence barrister Julia Hickleton told the court the events “happened very quickly”. Her client acted in self defence, she said, after seeing Mr Garmo who had previously threatened to kill him.
Tortell has also pleaded not guilty with his defence barrister Keith Chapple, SC, telling the jury there was no evidence his client had ever been in possession of a knife or driven the black Lexus that night. He has simply been at a house nearby to celebrate a little boy’s birthday party that evening, Mr Chapple said.
The trial continues before Acting Justice Jane Mathews.
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