Jacob Elliott, son of slain underworld figure Nabil Maghnie guilty of Love Machine shooting murders

The son of slain underworld figure Nabil Maghnie was found guilty of murder over the Love Machine nightclub shooting — those close say he was “trying to satisfy the old man”.

Braggart Nabil Maghnie and his son Jacob Elliott stare into the lens like they are “Born for Greatness’’.

But in reality, they were born to be bad.

Maghnie was not alive this week to see his boy, then a teenager, found guilty of killing two men.

Elliot was this week convicted of the murders of crowd controller Aaron Osmani and patron Richard Arow in the infamous Love Machine nightclub shooting of 2019.

He is now staring down a life sentence in a maximum security prison without the protection his father’s name once provided.

Nabil Maghnie leaves the Melbourne Magistrates court on bail in Melbourne, 2019. Picture: David Crosling

Gun violence has brought both father and son undone.

Maghnie had pointed plenty of guns at plenty of people and wasn’t afraid to fire.

But in January, 2020, Maghnie was on the wrong end of one.

He had arrived at an Epping house to heavy one of the residents who had been involved in a road rage incident with his daughter Sabrine.

It was to be the final shakedown after someone inside the house decided they had seen enough and opened fire.

At the time, Maghnie was under investigation by a special police taskforce named Sector which was looking into the Love Machine killings and the murder of crime figure Mitat Rasimi at Dandenong in the same year.

Maghnie died before being charged over the Love Machine shootings but his son will pay the price.

Another sibling, Ali Maghnie, had been thrown out of the venue earlier that night.

Elliott told the Supreme Court his father ordered him to go to the Love Machine and fire warning shots.

The deaths of Mr Osmani and Mr Arow were tragic but others suffered life-altering injuries.

“It’s a miracle more weren’t killed,” one detective said.

“I think he (Elliott) was trying to satisfy the old man. Now, he’s gonna be sitting inside for 20 or 30 years.”

Funeral of Nabil Maghnie at Northern Memorial Park. Picture: Wayne Taylor

At the time of his death Maghnie had been charged more than 200 times during a life of crime.

He even emblazoned his body with a tattoo proclaiming he was a “Mad Leb’’.

But Elliott has never lived up to his father’s underworld reputation.

“He couldn’t knock the skin off a custard,’’ one observer said.

A Supreme Court jury on Thursday convicted Jacob Elliott, 21, of two counts of murder after he gunned down security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani, 37, and patron Richard Arow, 28, outside the Prahran nightclub on April 14, 2019.

His mate, Allan Fares, 24, who was driving the car while Elliott hung a gun out the passenger window, was also found guilty of the two murders.

The two friends, sitting side-by-side in the dock, stared straight ahead as the 12-person jury also found them both guilty of two counts of attempted murder and one count of intentionally causing serious injury after three others were injured in the crossfire.

Security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani.

Love Machine patron Richard Arow.

Family members and friends who packed the courtroom in support of the young men became emotional, hugging each other and wiping away tears as each verdict was read out.

“We love you Jacob,” one woman yelled as the men were escorted from the courtroom by custody officers.

“Love ya,” he replied.

Elliott had never denied his involvement in the shooting, but his barrister, Julie Condon, QC, had asked the jury to find him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter, which would see him spend less time in prison.

Ms Condon said while her client pulled the trigger, he never intended to kill or seriously injure anyone.

She even called Elliott into the witness box where he revealed to the jury his feared father, Nabil Maghnie, who was shot dead in Epping in January 2020, had ordered him to drive to the nightclub and fire “warning shots” in revenge for his younger half-brother, Ali Maghnie, being kicked out from the venue by security guards hours earlier.

After his ejection, Ali Maghnie yelled to security: “You’re all f---ed; you wait, I’m coming back”.

Police tape at the scene of the Love Machine nightclub after the shooting.

He then called his father to complain “these guards kicked the f--- out of me”.

Elliott told the jury his father was a violent and intimidating man who you can’t “say no to”.

“He said ‘get two hotties (stolen cars) ready, I want you to let off some warning shots at the front of the club’.” Elliott told the court.

“I asked him if he can get someone else to do it (and) that I don’t feel comfortable doing it.

“He said something like shut the f--k up and get ready.”

It took the jury a little over a week of deliberations to dismiss Elliott’s claim that he’d mistakenly fired the gun into the crowd.

They also rejected Fares’s claim he too had no intention for anyone to be shot.

The jury found, following a four-week trial, the mates had organised and carried out the attack with the intention to kill or seriously injure people.

In one paragraph, prosecutor Patrick Bourke, QC, summed it up to the jury: “Pointing a gun where you know people are standing from a close range, pulling the trigger four times, in our submission to you, tells you what in truth he was intending.”

Mr Bourke disputed Elliott’s claims of reluctance to complete his father’s orders, saying phone location data placed Elliott near a meeting spot in Wollert less than 15 minutes after a call with his younger brother.

“All that’s happened pretty quickly, so where is the time for reluctance, avoidance?” Mr Bourke said.

Jacob Elliott fired four shots into the crowd.

After receiving instructions from his father, Elliott messaged Fares on encrypted messaging app Wickr asking him to help.

The jury found the pair had made an agreement to carry out the shooting, implicating Fares in the murders.

The friends met in Wollert, driving in convoy in a stolen black 4WD Porsche and a Suzuki Swift before meeting near the club and both jumping in the Porsche.

The pair drove past the club four times, before on the fifth drive-by, the shots were fired.

CCTV played to the court showed Mr Osmani and Mr Arow talking to one another with their backs to the road when the Porsche drives past and opens fire on them.

Dozens of panicked revellers fled into the club and up the road while the two men fell to the ground. Despite desperate efforts by bystanders and police and paramedics first on scene, the men could not be saved.

A third man, Moussa Hamka, was found guilty of being an accessory to murder after the fact after he later hid the gun used at his home.

But he was found not guilty of a charge relating to setting a car on fire.

The men will face a three-day pre-sentencing hearing from August 10.