Benjamin John Mitchell, Alfred Claude Rigney, Matt Bernard Tenhoopen and Aaron Donald Carver stand trial accused of murder of Urim Gjabri

An Albanian national living in a drug house had his skull caved in during a brutal assault and was left bleeding and dying on the ground before five men stole more cannabis than they could fit in the boot of their car, a jury has been told.

Aaron Donald Carver who was arrested in Queensland and charged with the murder of Urim Gjabri. He, along with three other men, have pleaded not guilty and are now standing trial in the Supreme Court. Picture: Tom Huntley

A group of men allegedly left the owner of a drug house with fatal injuries before fleeing with so much cannabis they couldn’t fit it in the boot of a car, a jury has been told.

Benjamin John Mitchell, 33, Alfred Claude Rigney, 44, Matt Bernhard Tenhoopen, 25, and Aaron Donald Carver, 37, are standing trial in the Supreme Court charged with the murder of Urim Gjabri in October 2018.

Mr Gjabri was found dead in a house which the court heard had been used to grow large amounts of cannabis.

However, only stalks and immature plants were left in the house when a friend of Mr Gjabri found the body in the living room, which had been converted into a bedroom, on October 12, three days after he was killed.

The front and back doors of the house were damaged, as well as an internal door.

Opening the case on Monday, prosecutor Rob Walker said that on the prosecution case the four men standing trial and another man had travelled from Murray Bridge to Para Vista on October 8, 2018.

Police at the scene of Urim Gjabri’s death. Picture: AAP / Mike Burton

Mobile phone data showed several of the men’s phones travelling down the South Eastern Freeway before stopping north of Holden Hill.

Mr Walker said that security camera footage taken in Carousel St showed five men approaching the house around 11.15pm, one of them holding an item which he described as a weapon.

One of the men was seen to discard a cigarette butt.

Police recovered a cigarette butt from the scene which was forensically linked to Carver.

Inside the house, Carver’s DNA was found on a knife and Mitchell’s on a set of secateurs.

Mr Walker said a forensics pathologist would tell the court that Mr Gjabri’s injuries would not have killed him straight away.

He said that would explain blood and vomit strewn around the house.

Mr Walker said that Mr Gjabri’s Mazda was used to transport the stolen cannabis and was taken to Gilbert Street, Ingle Farm, where it was then transferred to another car.

Police searching for a weapon they believe was used in the beating death of Urim Gjabri. Picture: AAP / Emma Brasier

Early in the morning of October 9, residents reported hearing men arguing in the street as they loaded garbage bags into the boot of a car.

“The garbage bags contained cannabis, so much so that the men struggled to fit it into just one car,” Mr Walker said.

“In the end the men drove off leaving one bag behind, torn and spilling cannabis on the ground in the street.

“When the men left, the Mazda was left behind.

“On the prosecution case its owner lay bloodied and dying in his house a short distance away, his skull fractured as a result of severe blunt force trauma.”

Mr Walker said Rigney’s DNA had been found on the steering wheel of the car.

Carver, Mitchell and Tenhoopen left South Australia in the days after the incident and drove to Queensland.

Mr Walker said that phone calls made in the days after the incident linked Carver to the crime as he was recorded answering the questions “was he dead?” with the answer “yep”.

The trial continues.

Originally published as Benjamin John Mitchell, Alfred Claude Rigney, Matt Bernard Tenhoopen and Aaron Donald Carver stand trial accused of murder of Urim Gjabri