Jaeden Tito and Rabii Abram Zahabe plead not guilty

The two young men who allegedly murdered the notorious gangland figure in a hail of bullets at a Melbourne cafe have pleaded not guilty.

Two men accused of killing notorious gangland figure Gavin ‘Capable’ Preston in a daylight hail of bullets at a busy Keilor cafe have pleaded not guilty to his murder.

Jaeden Tito, 23, and co-defendant Rabii Abram Zahabe, 24, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday via video link to formally plead not guilty to one charge each of murder and attempted murder.

Preston, 50, was gunned down as he sat outside Sweet Lulus Cafe on September 9 last year.

CCTV footage captured the moment a masked assailant approached Preston, discharging up to ten shots into him as innocent fellow diners ducked for cover.

Underworld figure Gavin Preston was gunned down outside Sweet Lulus Cafe.

Jaeden Tito. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Rabii Zahabe. Picture: Instagram

Preston was dining with Abbas ‘AJ’ Maghnie Jnr, son of Preston’s late friend and fellow underworld identity Nabil Maghnie, at the time of his alleged execution.

Maghnie Jnr took a bullet to the stomach and was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, but survived.

The two Sydney men accused of killing the feared underworld standover man were being kept in separate jails, Mr Tito in Melbourne Remand Centre and Mr Zahabe in Port Phillip Prison.

Both defendants had previously been extradited from New South Wales to face court.

Preston spent most of his adult life in prison and established a reputation as one of Melbourne’s most fearsome criminals.

His last jail term before his alleged murder was an eleven year stretch for the killing of ice dealer Adam Khoury at Khoury’s North Melbourne apartment, a crime to which Preston pleaded guilty under the lesser charge of “defensive homicide”.

At the time of that crime, he was also the suspect in a near-fatal shooting of a Bandidos bikie in Brunswick.

Preston narrowly survived a stabbing attack during his final stint in Barwon Prison, from which he was released in early April 2023, just five months before he was slain.

In a short administrative hearing, Mr Tito and Mr Zahabe confirmed they were exercising their right to have the case fast tracked to the Supreme Court for trial, using a mechanism introduced during Covid to expedite cases through the court.

As a result, Magistrate Leon Fluxman reminded both men he did not have to hear the evidence against them before the trial was sent to the higher court.

“I do not have to find the evidence is of sufficient weight (for the trial to go ahead), “ he said. “They (the defendants) elected to stand trial.”

The duo will face a Supreme Court directions hearing in September.