Duo face trial for ‘planned underworld hit’ at cafe

Two hired gunmen switched cars three times before a driver took them across the border after a “planned underworld attack” on a gangster in a cafe, prosecutors allege.

Jaeden Tito, 25, and Rabii Zahabe, 26, faced their first day in the High Court in Melbourne today charged with Preston’s murder.

They are also each charged with the attempted murder of Abbas Maghnie, who was with Preston at the time.

Tito and Zahabe have pleaded not guilty and deny that they were the shooters.

Preston and Maghnie were sitting outside the Sweet Lulus cafe in Keilor, which was busy and full of customers on a sunny Saturday morning, prosecutor Christie Churchill said.

Chilling footage played to a jury of 14 showed shocked customers sitting outside the cafe then fleeing as shots were fired by two gunmen.

Churchill claimed that Tito and Zahabe were hired gunmen who had helped others plan the attack, but said it was unknown who hired the pair.

“We say this was a contract killing, planned and purposefully prepared, with other unknown people involved in its organization,” Churchill told the jury.

“This was a planned underworld hit.”

The prosecutor alleged that before the alleged murder, Tito and Zahabe sat in an Audi Q5 for about three hours in the parking lot of the Keilor Hotel, opposite the cafe.

The Audi left the car park at 10.17am and stopped next to the cafe, where two men with firearms got out and ran towards Preston, she said.

The gunmen, who Churchill claimed were Tito and Zahabe, wore all black with face coverings and gloves.

She claimed Tito raised his gun and “immediately” shot Preston, while Zahabe aimed at Maghnie.

‘Mr. Maghnie turns around [his] head in their direction, begins running from the table as gunshots begin…the deceased did not appear to see what was about to happen,” she said.

She said Preston slumped forward when he was hit by seven bullets and hit his head on the ground before being pronounced dead at the scene.

Maghnie was hit by one bullet but survived after being hospitalized.

Churchill said the two gunmen got back into the Audi and drove at high speed through residential streets before setting it on fire.

She said a resident heard an explosion and large flames coming from the Audi and that Tito suffered burns to his left arm when he tried to put out the fire by “knocking on it.”

Churchill claimed the men set fire to a second car and dumped a third before jumping into a chauffeured vehicle and leaving Victoria.

The driver was reportedly pre-arranged via an encrypted app, with the two men driven to NSW by the man who heard one of them say “we are brothers now”.

Churchill claimed Zahabe had Googled “no extradition countries” after returning home, while Tito had injuries to his left arm in photos his girlfriend posted on social media in the days after the shooting.

The prosecutor will show the jury DNA evidence that allegedly links the two accused killers to the cars and items found inside, she said.

Zahabe’s lawyer Paul Smallwood said his client denied he was one of the shooters and asked jurors to consider the attempted murder charge as separate from murder.

Daniel Sala, Tito’s attorney, said he denied shooting Preston and urged jurors to keep a “clean slate” in mind when they hear the evidence.

The trial continues tomorrow.