Three bikies gunned down a rival gang member after a pub brawl over a jumper sparked a bloody tit-for-tat, a jury has heard.
Finks members Sione Hokafonu, 29, and brothers Joseph Opapo, 27, and Poiva Sita, 32, faced the Supreme Court on Thursday, when it was alleged the trio joined in a plan to lure Rocco Curra to a home in Melbourne’s north-east under the guise of meeting a woman.
The accused men (from left): Joseph Opapo, Poiva Sita and Sione Hokafonu.Credit:Eddie Jim
There, he was ambushed and shot multiple times as he sat in his car, but survived.
Hokafonu and Sita have both pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, while Opapo has pleaded not guilty to intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence.
When asked what sparked the shooting of Curra, Hokafonu allegedly told another person: “Blood for blood.”
Crown prosecutor Neill Hutton said: “Mr Curra was a member of the Mongols. He was only targeted by the Finks because he was a member. He was randomly set up by someone who knew him.”
The prosecution alleged the attack stemmed from an incident at the Sporting Globe in Fountain Gate shopping centre in July 2019, where a group of Finks members clashed with a Mongols associate as they all watched a rugby league state of origin match.
Footage played to the jury showed a man in a white jumper, with the motif SYLM [Support Your Local Mongols], throw a salt container towards the television during the game.
Finks members approached the man and a brawl started, and a Finks member allegedly grabbed the man’s white jumper as a “trophy”, which then allegedly sparked a bloody chain of events.
Hutton said video footage recorded two hours later showed Hokafonu arrive at Casey Hospital’s emergency department, at midnight, with a gunshot wound to the foot, believed to have occurred in retaliation for the pub brawl.
Prosecutors allege Sione Hokafonu was one of the two shooters.Credit:Eddie Jim
Days later, Finks members allegedly joined a plan to “seek revenge” on the rival club and attack a random Mongols member.
When a female associate revealed she knew a Mongols member — Curra — through Instagram, police allege the group set about to create a fake social media account to lure him to a street off the freeway at Bulleen to meet the woman for “a quick hello” before bed.
“The trap was effectively sprung,” Hutton said.
On August 1, 2019 CCTV showed Curra arrive at the Bulleen address, before a silver BMW soon blocked his escape. Footage showed Curra then being ambushed as two gunmen fired about a dozen shots into his car’s windscreen.
CCTV footage of the shooting of Rocco Curra in Bulleen in 2019.Credit:Victoria Police
“He had no chance to escape, he was hit by four of those shots, critically injuring him,” Hutton said.
Curra spent 24 days in hospital but ultimately survived.
The prosecution alleges Opapo was behind the wheel of the silver BMW when Hokafonu and another man jumped from the car and fired shots at Curra. The men then got into a getaway car parked nearby, and police allege that was driven by Sita.
“We say they all participated in a joint plan to seek revenge,” Hutton said.
The court heard the accused men allegedly celebrated at the Finks clubhouse with 20 others the next day, wrongly believing they had managed to kill Curra.
Defence barristers for the three accused men said their clients were not involved and that police had arrested the wrong men.
They asked the jury to consider whether another person, described as the prosecution’s key witness, played a “role” in the shooting instead of their clients.
The trial continues before Justice Andrew Tinney.
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