By John Silvester
THE crime deal of the decade that resulted in gangland figure Carl Williams pleading guilty to three murders was teetering on the point of collapse when Justice Betty King reconvened her court on Wednesday afternoon.
While it took nearly seven months of secret negotiations to bring Williams to the point where he was prepared to admit his guilt, the final deal was struck in the final hour.
The man responsible for 10 underworld killings had just told his relieved lawyers he would plead guilty to the murders of Lewis Moran, Jason Moran and Mark Mallia. He had previously been found guilty of the murder of Michael Marshall.
But his agreement was worth nothing. He had to say the words "I plead guilty" when his presentments were read to him in open court. Backroom deals didn't count.
He had been brought up from the court cells to sign a document instructing his defence team of his intentions to enter guilty pleas.
Outside the court, members of the police Purana taskforce stood waiting. One nervously said: "I won't believe it until I hear him say it."
Williams' mother, Barbara, and father, George, were allowed to see their son before the hearing commenced. While George, who is facing drug-trafficking charges, remained quiet, Barbara was animated. She pleaded with her son not to plead guilty.
According to an insider, Carl began to waver and the deal was "within a hair's breadth" of collapsing. "If we had lost him then maybe we would have lost him forever."
But the court convened and three times Williams admitted his guilt.
Hours earlier, it looked as though the murder trials could have dragged on for five years.
It was around August last year that the man who once had teams of hitmen prepared to kill for him knew he was facing the rest of his life in jail. Several of his trusted offsiders had cut deals with prosecutors, leaving him increasingly isolated.
One of the men was one of the hardest criminals in Victoria. No one expected him to talk — until one day he did. The criminal gave statements implicating Williams in four murders and the big man knew he was sunk.
Without a plea he was certain to be found guilty and receive a life sentence with no minimum. But if he pleaded guilty, he would be entitled to a discount. Now aged 36, he wants to get out of jail by the age of 70.
But the first, tentative approaches were not encouraging. His team floated a prison sentence of around 12 years.
"They were looking for a ridiculous bargain-basement sentence," said the Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Coghlan, QC.
But as the trial date came closer, so, too, did the negotiators. In February, the two sides spent 10 days talking. Then, last Friday, what had appeared promising collapsed.
According to Mr Coghlan: "We were very cross. We thought Williams had been fooling around and was never serious. He was wasting our time because they came up with various proposals that were absolutely laughable."
On Wednesday at midday, the court process began before Justice King with pre-trial discussions. It was legal tent-boxing with a few slow punches thrown without any landing. First, Williams' team asked for an adjournment because of pre-trial publicity but the same argument had been tried before and had failed. Next was a move to suggest there was judicial bias and again it was doomed to fail. Then it was agreed the star protected witnesses could give video evidence for security reasons.
By 1pm, the court was adjourned for the day. There would be a few more pre-trial details to be cleared up and then a jury would be selected. On Monday, Chief Crown Prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, would begin his opening address to declare that Williams organised the murders of Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro, who were shot dead on June 21, 2003, while watching an Auskick junior football clinic.
Once the jury was empanelled, any chance of a deal for Williams would be over.
It was 2.10pm when Mr Horgan received a call in his chambers from Williams' barrister, David Ross, QC. The message was brief. "We may have a deal."
A message was passed to Justice King's associate Helen Marriott and a decision made to reconvene the court that day.
But Williams had left the court and was heading to Barwon Prison. Then Justice King intervened and ordered the bus back.
This was no sweetheart deal. The prosecutors will make no recommendations on a jail sentence although they acknowledge Williams should be set a minimum due to his decision to plead. "His sentence will be totally up to the judge," Mr Horgan said.
The charge sheet was quickly typed, documents signed and Williams led back into court. Then, despite his mother's concern, Williams nodded his head.
It was a decision, Mr Coghlan said, that would save millions of dollars and send a message to the underworld that no one was above the law.