Mongols bikie Aaron Ong launches appeal after being convicted of Paul Virgona’s murder
The Mongols bikie found guilty of brutally executing Melbourne fruiterer Paul Virgona on EastLink claims the jury overlooked the possibility of an alternative killer.
Police & Courts
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A Mongols bikie found guilty of the brutal execution of Melbourne fruiterer Paul Virgona on EastLink claims the jury got it wrong.
Aaron Ong, who is serving a 35-year sentence for the November 9, 2019 mistaken identity murder, has launched an appeal against his conviction.
Ong, 39, from Kilsyth, pleaded not guilty to murder, but was found guilty following a Supreme Court trial.
His barrister Theo Kassimatis KC told the Court of Appeal on Tuesday the “verdict of the jury is unreasonable” and cannot be supported having regard to the evidence.
The jury was shown CCTV footage of Ong and his co-offender, fellow Mongol Joshua Rider, leaving the outlaw motorcycle gang’s Port Melbourne clubhouse hours before the shooting.
The clothing they were observed wearing was found in two bags – one a Culture Kings bag covered with Ong’s DNA and the other a shopping bag containing Rider’s DNA – later dropped by the perpetrators as they fled police.
The Crown case was the pair drove in convoy in stolen vehicles — one in a Mercedes and the other in an Amarok — to a Mooroolbark street, where they left the Amarok.
They both then went in the Mercedes to Mr Virgona’s Croydon home, where they lay in wait for two hours, before following him as he left in his van to work at Epping market just after 2am.
Within 15 minutes, Mr Virgona, 46, had been pummelled with bullets and was found dead in his van on the freeway.
Rider and Ong returned to the Amarok, torching the Mercedes in a nearby paddock, before fleeing in the Amarok.
They were soon after involved in a police pursuit, and were seen running from the ute, with Ong carrying two bags that he dropped while escaping officers.
Pushing the same hypothesis Ong’s legal team argued during his trial, Mr Kassimatis pointed to the possibility of their being an alternative suspect.
He said his client’s DNA was not found in or outside the Amarok, while Rider’s was.
Mr Kassimatis said the case against his client centred around the Culture Kings bag.
He conceded the bag belonged to his client, but that it somehow made its way into the Amarok, driven by Rider.
“The case really boils down to whether it was open to the jury to exclude the reasonable possibility that Mr Ong removed his clothing and handed his bag to someone else before Mr Rider left Port Melbourne,” Mr Kassimatis said.
But Justice Stephen Kaye questioned why an offender would go to the effort of taking a bag from the getaway car if they weren’t concerned it would implicate them.
“Why would he take a bag that is unconnected to him or Rider?” the appeal judge said.
Justice Maree Kennedy said there was also no reason why the bag “would land in that Amarok”.
Elizabeth Ruddle KC, for the prosecution, said the Culture Kings bag was “a very damning piece of evidence against Mr Ong”.
She said it was an “inherently unlikely set of circumstances” that Ong passed his bag to a third person to take in the Amarok “to commit a murder”.
Rider, who was the shooter, pleaded guilty to murder in a plea deal with the prosecution on the eve of the trial, and was sentenced to 30 years behind bars.
Mr Virgona’s wife Antoinetta and his mother Geraldine sat quietly in court as they were forced to listen to some of the details of the shocking mistaken identity murder all over again.
They did not wish to comment following the appeal hearing.
Justices Kaye, Kennedy and Christopher Boyce reserved their decision.
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