Urim Gjabri fled Albania to provide for his family before he was murdered, the Supreme Court has heard
Urim Gjabri left Albania to try to provide for his wife and three children. His journey took him to a drug house in Adelaide where he was brutally murdered.
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The victim of a brutal slaying in a suburban drug house had left his home country of Albania to try to provide a better life for his wife and three children, the Supreme Court has heard.
Urim Gjabri was left with a fatal head wound during the robbery of a Para Vista house in October 2018.
Benjamin John Mitchell, 34, Alfred Claude Rigney, 47, Matt Bernhard Tenhoopen, 25, and Aaron Donald Carver, 38, were found guilty of murdering Mr Gjabri as they stole the cannabis crop he was tending.
On Monday, Supreme Court Justice David Lovell heard sentencing submissions for the four men who face a minimum non-parole of 20 years behind bars.
Prosecutor Tim Preston read to the court a victim impact statement from Mr Gjabri’s wife Hajre which was translated from Albanian.
“I am writing with a deep sorrow in my heart,” he read.
“Years ago I married Urim Gjabri and created a family. After the birth of our three children, the problems started.
“Our family was ruined economically, we could not get by with one single salary and we were obliged to take out a loan.
“Step after the step the loan was getting bigger. The only solution was for my husband to leave Albania and hope that things get better.
“He was everything for our family, it is not easy to raise three children as orphans.”
Stella Halilay, a friend of Mr Gjabri, said he had done the wrong thing by working in the drug house, but that his actions did not deserve death.
“Urim was a weak man with a big heart,” she said.
“Life made him do things which I believe deep down were not his nature. He was a victim of his own destiny.
“These men have no soul. As you get older the guilt will only get worse, it will destroy your souls.”
Mr Gjabri arrived in Australia around 2013 where he spent time in Immigration Detention.
During the trial, a jury heard that Mr Gjabri had been hiding out from immigration officials while living in the drug house and cultivating the crop.
Barristers for each of the four men told Justice Lovell that their clients should receive the lowest possible non-parole period.
Each was found guilty of constructive, or felony, murder, meaning that Mr Gjabri died while the four men were committing the robbery of the house.
Under that charge it was not necessary for the prosecution to prove which of the men caused the fatal blow, only that they were present in the house and committing the robbery.
Bill Boucaut QC, for Carver, said his client was “more of a follower than a leader” and was not deserving of the “draconian” mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
Stephen Apps, for Mitchell, said his client’s role had been to drive some of the others to the Para Vista house and then back to Murray Bridge.
That Mitchell had fled along with Carver and Tenhoopen to Queensland after the murder was only proof that he had been sucked into the crime, Mr Apps argued.
“Once the offending occurred, it was like being on a crocodile’s back: impossible to get off,” he said.
Scott Henchliffe QC, for Rigney, took aim at the crime of constructive murder.
“While this a murder according to the law, it was through a technicality that it was bought in,” he said.
“If you were to tell the man in the street that these people were murderers and then you told them the basis for their conviction your Honour might be surprised of the reaction.”
Nick Healy, for Tenhoopen, said his young client had only gained an insight into his life of drug use and dealing once he had gone to prison.
Justice Lovell will sentence the four men later this month.
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Originally published as Urim Gjabri fled Albania to provide for his family before he was murdered, the Supreme Court has heard
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