Rapper Coskun Marius found guilty of murdering sleeping housemate

A Queensland rapper who bludgeoned his sleeping housemate to death and then blamed his alter ego for the violent slaying has been found guilty of murder.

Coskun Marius will be sentenced on Friday.

A Queensland rapper who bludgeoned his sleeping housemate to death and then blamed his alter ego for the violent slaying has been found guilty of murder.

A court heard aspiring rapper Coskun Jaques Marius became infuriated in May 2019 because he was hungry and his former housemate Tane Tahi Manawa came home boasting of the “wonderful meal” he had just eaten.

At the start of the trial almost three weeks ago, Crown Prosecutor Michael Lehane said Marius blamed the fatal attack on a person who “existed in his head” named Siege and told friends he had been hired to perform a hit on Mr Manawa, also known as Dre.

Marius, 30, pleaded guilty to Mr Manawa’s manslaughter but not guilty to murder on the first day of his Brisbane Supreme Court trial.

Coskun Marius has been found guilty of murder.

Defence barrister Lars Falcongreen said his client did not deny killing Mr Manawa but that he would argue a defence of diminished responsibility, urging the jury to pay close attention to evidence about the defendant’s state of mind.

But after an 18-day trial, a jury found Marius guilty of murder on Thursday afternoon.

Justice Glenn Martin will sentence Marius on Friday.

In his opening address to the jury at the start of the trial, Mr Lehane said: “On the afternoon of 10 May, 2019, Tane Tahi Manawa, also known as Dre, had the audacity to have a large and thoroughly enjoyable meal.”

He said after finishing the meal, likely Chinese food, he went back to his house where a number of others were, including his former housemate Marius, also known as CJ.

“From Dre’s perspective life was good, his stomach was very full, contentedly Dre pulled back the leg rest on that recliner and rested in it and spoke of his wonderful meal,” Mr Lehane said.

He said Marius went into the lounge room armed with a metal gym bar and “filled with malice, spite and Fruity Lexia”, smashed the bar down on the sleeping man, fracturing his skull.

“This accused - call him by his full name, call him CJ, call him Siege, is one in the same man,” Mr Lehane told the jury.

“A man the crown says has committed an horrendous act on a sleeping man out of anger, resentment and pure spite, smashing his face and skull with a bar, bringing it down many times causing his death.

“Call him whatever you want to choose, it’s one in the same resentful individual who simply murdered a sleeping man.”

Originally published as Rapper Coskun Marius found guilty of murdering sleeping housemate