Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Queensland toolbox murder trial to resume
Lawyers are set to begin closing arguments in a trial for a man accused of murdering two drug dealers who were forced into a toolbox and dumped in a creek.
February 16, 2020
Lawyers at a trial for a Brisbane man accused of murdering two drug dealers, who were forced into a toolbox and dumped in a creek, are expected to begin their closing arguments.
Cory Breton’s and Iuliana Triscaru’s decomposing bodies were found in a large metal box at Scrubby Creek, south of Brisbane, on February 11, 2016.
Tuhirangi-Thomas Tahiata, 28, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the pair after they were lured to a townhouse in Kingston 18 days earlier and assaulted by a group of his mates.
But the Brisbane Supreme Court has heard evidence that Tahiata helped the men load the toolbox onto his Toyota Hilux ute before driving it to the creek with an old school friend.
Tahiata and his friend, named Trent Thrupp, then dragged the box off the car and Thrupp pushed it into the water, prosecutor David Meredith said on the first day of the two-week trial.
Mr Breton and Ms Triscaru screamed and pleaded for their lives from inside, he said.
Tahiata then allegedly handed Thrupp a claw hammer so he could punch holes in the box when it wouldn’t sink.
His actions were a “breathtakingly evil act”, Mr Meredith said.
The trial continues on Monday.