Josef Molfese jailed for murder of Tung ‘Ricky’ Trinh outside South Melbourne Coles

A DRUG addict with a violent criminal past will spend at least 18 years behind bars for spontaneously slashing the throat of a drug dealer, killing him, on a busy South Melbourne street.

A DRUG addict with a violent criminal past will spend at least 18 years behind bars for spontaneously slashing the throat of a drug dealer, killing him, on a busy South Melbourne street.

Josef Molfese was sentenced in the Supreme Court on February 14 over the brutal murder of Tung “Ricky” Trinh on March 18, 2016.

Mr Trinh, 47, and his girlfriend had gone to the Coles store on Clarendon St to buy ice cream when Molfese approached him from behind and used a curved blade to slit the victim’s throat “from one side to the other”.

Josef Molfese killed Tung “Ricky” Trinh outside the Coles Supermarket in Clarendon St, South Melbourne, in 2016.

Molfese, 29, had planned to rob Mr Trinh, a notorious drug dealer in the area, initially demanding he hand over drugs, but slashed his throat “on the spur of the moment”.

An autopsy revealed Mr Trinh’s carotid artery was almost completely severed in the attack.

Mr Trinh’s girlfriend, Natasha Lamb, sustained a minor cut to her finger when she tried to intervene.

Justice Jane Dixon told the court Molfese had “impulsively slashed at Ricky Trinh’s throat with deadly force”.

“The actual murder was committed spontaneously, with the attempt to rob (the victim) being immediately abandoned,” she said.

She said Molfese, “as a drug-seeking and drug-affected individual”, formed the plan to rob Mr Trinh at knifepoint, assuming he was carrying drugs.

During sentencing, Justice Dixon also took into account charges of aggravated burglary and assault stemming from a violent home invasion in South Melbourne just two days before Mr Trinh’s murder.

During the incident on March 16, Molfese and two other men robbed, assaulted and threatened a 64-year-old man in his Dorcas St apartment.

The men used a crowbar, metal pipe and wooden stick to bash the victim after he refused to hand over his prescription medicine.

Molfese also rammed a screwdriver into the victim’s upper right thigh.

“At one point the victim has his pants pulled down and threats were made for him to hand over what you wanted or his penis would be cut off,” Justice Dixon said.

Molfese was sentenced to 23 years and four months in jail, with a minimum term of 18 years and four months.