Jim Dastan to be sentenced for Craig Anderson’s murder

A promising league player who was rising through the ranks with NRL stars Boyd Cordner and Api Koroisau was spiralling before he was found guilty of murdering a suburban Sydney drug dealer.

Murder victim Craig Anderson during an arrest over a separate incident the year before his death. Picture: Adam Yip

A Catholic schoolboy on a rugby league scholarship who was rising through the ranks with capped NRL stars and captains Boyd Cordner and Api Koroisau is facing a very different future after a jury found him guilty of murdering a suburban drug dealer.

Jim Dastan has spent the past four years languishing in a jail cell on remand after Doonside drug dealer Craig Anderson was repeatedly shot and killed on his own doorstep on May 27 2019.

The court heard Dastan and other men who cannot be identified made their way to Mr Anderson’s Meridian Pl home to settle the score after Dastan’s brother was assaulted at the address by unknown men the previous day.

Mr Anderson was then shot four times – twice as he tried to run – and later died.

Dastan had pleaded not guilty to murder and participating in a criminal group but a jury found him guilty on both counts after a NSW Supreme Court trial earlier this year.

Craig Anderson (centre) being arrested a year before he was killed at his Doonside home. Picture: Adam Yip

Several Corrective Services officers and Public Order and Riot Squad officers filled the King St Courthouse on Friday as Dastan appeared in person for his sentence hearing.

Dastan’s barrister Jennifer Ellis submitted to Justice Ian Harrison that Dastan may not have been the man who fired the fatal shot.

Instead, Ms Ellis said the court might find Dastan merely participated in a joint criminal enterprise to intimidate or assault Mr Anderson in response to Dastan’s brother being bashed.

“If the court finds he was not the shooter his role is minimal and the objective seriousness is in the lower range,” Ms Ellis said.

“Do you accept whoever was the shooter must have intended to kill Mr Anderson?” Justice Harrison asked.

“No, it was not aimed at killing Mr Anderson,” Ms Ellis responded.

“This was a drug house – if the court finds it was the offender (who fired the shot), there is evidence to support a finding that Mr Dastan must have believed that Mr Anderson was going inside to possibly get a firearm.”

Ms Ellis said there was no evidence Dastan had ever planned to use the firearm other than to intimidate Mr Anderson after his younger brother was assaulted.

Joshkun Dastan, the brother of Jim Dastan who was bashed at Craig Anderson’s home in the days before Mr Anderson was murdered.

“The court would accept if Mr Dastan was the shooter, there was some provocation in the fact that his younger brother had been bashed some days prior,” Ms Ellis told the court.

“Even if by mistake, Mr Dastan believed this was who was responsible.”

The court heard Dastan’s childhood had been marred by trauma, violence and instability and that this would be a crucial consideration in sentencing.

Dastan’s grandfather Hasan Dastan was murdered in a horrific bashing at his own Blacktown auto shop in 1995, for which his then-employee Kubilay Kilincer was only charged in January 2020 after the case went cold.

Kilincer is now serving a 22-year jail sentence for Dastan’s grandfather’s murder.

A file image of Hasan Dastan.

The court also heard Dastan had once been a rising rugby league prospect who had a scholarship at Patrician Brothers Blacktown, despite his difficult childhood.

In his high school days Dastan played alongside former Roosters captain and Australian international Boyd Cordner, Wests Tigers captain and Fijian international Api Koroisau, and former Newcastle Knights player Alex McKinnon.

It all came undone when Dastan became involved with drugs.

“He was a very brilliant athlete … he was not able to cope with the trauma,” Ms Ellis told the court.

“That’s when, I submit, his life spiralled – he started off using drugs, and he has acknowledged his drug use and addiction.”

Police at the crime scene near Mr Anderson’s Doonside home in 2019. Picture: John Grainger

Ms Ellis also said she did not agree with any assessment this was an “execution killing”.

“The submission is if the court finds Mr Dastan was the shooter, that the case is not in the worst category of cases,” Ms Ellis said.

“Even if it was Mr Dastan who shot him, there was something impulsive about the shooting and there was no intention to kill.”

The court was asked to consider Dastan’s capacity to retain some hope for his future as the former cleanskin approaches his fifth year in custody.

Dastan – who sported carefully groomed, shoulder-length hair and a suit as he sat quietly in the dock, waved to his father and grandmother as he was taken back to the cells.

Justice Harrison will hand down judgment on February 23 next year.