By Adam Cooper
A man allegedly murdered over a rental dispute at a Melbourne Airbnb property was handed a mobile phone to check his internet banking minutes before he died, a court has heard.
Two police officers saw Ramis Jonuzi lying face down outside a Brighton East house at 8.30pm on October 25 last year with the three men accused of killing him crouching by his body. Melbourne Magistrates Court has heard he was in a dispute with the trio over rent money.
Mr Jonuzi, 33, could not be revived. Investigators believe he was strangled and also inhaled blood from a broken nose. Chocolate cake was on the ground near his body and on his face.
Ramis Jonuzi, 33, died at a house in Brighton East after a rental dispute.
The court on Thursday heard that at 8.14pm that night while in the front yard, one of the accused men, Craig Jonathan Levy, passed his mobile phone to Mr Jonuzi so the latter could go online and check his bank account.
"In the course of what was was going on outside, he (Mr Jonuzi) said 'Let me check my account'," Mr Levy’s lawyer, Megan Tittensor, told the court.
Mr Levy telephoned police at 8.20pm and told an officer Mr Jonuzi was in a headlock and requested police attend the Alexander Street house.
When officers arrived, they came across Mr Levy, Ryan Charles Smart and Jason Rohan Colton crouching near Mr Jonuzi’s body.
The house in Alexander Street, Brighton East, where Mr Jonuzi died.Credit: Joe Armao
Mr Levy, 36, and Mr Colton, 42, were on Thursday committed to stand trial on murder. Both men pleaded not guilty at the end of a three-day hearing.
Smart, 37, on Monday pleaded guilty to manslaughter. His murder charge was struck out.
Ms Tittensor argued for Mr Levy’s charge to be struck out, because he telephoned police from inside the house and was unaware Mr Colton was going to assault Mr Jonuzi. It was inconceivable, she said, Mr Levy would request police attend and then fatally assault Mr Jonuzi.
But prosecutor Mark Gibson, SC, said Mr Levy had admitted to police he and his housemates had earlier fought with Mr Jonuzi, and that Mr Levy had admitted punching him in the face at least once.
The prosecutor said Mr Levy intentionally assisted and encouraged the assault and would have foreseen the probability Mr Jonuzi would be seriously injured or killed.
There was no evidence Mr Levy desisted, Mr Gibson said, and no evidence the phone call to police was made from inside the house.
Magistrate Andrew McKenna said the arguments were questions for a jury and committed both men to trial.
Mr McKenna also refused bail for Mr Levy, because the accused man failed to show the required exceptional circumstances needed on a murder charge.
The two accused men and Smart were remanded in custody to appear before the Supreme Court on Friday so a judge can set their next court dates.