A friend of Benjamin Glenn Hoffmann has denied giving the accused murderer a shotgun, but agreed he lent him a ute with ammunition on the back seat.

October 11, 2021

A man who left shotgun ammunition in a ute he lent accused murderer Benjamin Glenn Hoffmann before he allegedly shot four people dead in Darwin says he didn’t give him the gun.

The 47-year-old has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder in less than an hour on the afternoon of June 4, 2019.

Earlier in the day, one of Hoffmann’s mates, Michael Makrylos, went to a gun and ammunition store and bought 50 Winchester 12 gauge shotgun cartridges.

He also purchased a 30cm Bowie knife, which he left on the back seat of his white Toyota Hilux, along with the ammunition, when he lent the ute to Hoffmann.

Mr Makrylos said he knew the ammunition and knife were in the car when Hoffmann drove off but he denied buying it for him.

“We were going hunting on the weekend and I wanted to use the gun,” he told the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

“I hadn’t used it in a while”.

Mr Makrylos, a licensed owner of three shotguns, also denied giving Hoffmann the Winchester Defender double-barrel shotgun that police found in the ute after they arrested him.

He also said he purchased the knife for his 11-year-old daughter, and answered “I’m not too sure” when prosecutor Lloyd Babb SC asked if his wife knew about it.

“When you purchased the knife you told the salesman at Coolalinga Guns and Ammo that you were buying it for a mate, didn’t you?” Mr Babb asked.

“I don’t think so,” Mr Makrylos answered.

“You’re lying when you say you bought it for your daughter, aren’t you?” Mr Babb asked.

“No, I’m not lying mate,” Mr Makrylos replied.

Mr Makrylos confirmed he knew it was an offence under NT law to leave ammunition unsecured.

He also agreed that Hoffmann was talking “gibberish” when the pair met on June 4.

“He just wasn’t making sense,” Mr Makrylos said.

Mr Makrylos said he’d known Hoffmann a long time but hadn’t seen him for a about a year before the two met early on June 4.

Defence lawyer Jon Tippett QC put it to Mr Makrylos that if he “hadn’t given him the shotgun, four people wouldn’t have been killed”.

But Mr Babb objected before Mr Makrylos was able to respond.

The Crown says Hoffmann used the Hilux ute to drive to the Palms Motel in Darwin’s CBD where he shot dead his first victim, Hassan Baydoun, 33, about 5.38pm.

Hoffman then allegedly shot Nigel Hellings, 75, at a nearby apartment block on Garden Hills Crescent and Michael Sisois, 57, in a car park at The Buff Club bar and restaurant.

Rob Courtney, 52, was stabbed more than 30 times and shot dead at an industrial yard at Darwin Recycling.

The trial continues Monday.