By Karen Sweeney, Aap
Staking out a possible armed robbery target in August 1998, Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller spotted a suspicious car.
They left their spot near the Silky Emperor, a Chinese restaurant in Warrigal Road, Moorabbin and followed the blue Hyundai around the corner into Cochranes Road.
The goal was to capture two men behind 10 armed robberies since March that year.
Moments later Sgt Silk lay dead on the grassy verge and Sen Const Miller was dying in the driveway of the Silky Emperor.
Jason Joseph Roberts,now facing a retrial, has pleaded not guilty to their murders.
He admitted involvement in 10 armed robberies, the first committed when he was 17. He is now 41.
Prosecutor Ben Ihle QC said on Tuesday that robbery victims described Roberts, from Cranbourne, as the more subservient of the robbers, while the other man, Bandali Debs of Narre Warren was older and more in charge.
Roberts’ barrister David Hallowes SC is expected to argue that his client did not commit the murders because he was not there in the early hours of August 16, 1998 when the officers were killed.
Mr Ihle said the Silky Emperor was a probable target and the men had a tendency to carry out robberies requiring at least two armed people, so it was “highly improbable“ Debs would go alone.
He said the evidence suggests they had a powerful motive to avoid detection when stopped on Cochranes Road soon after midnight on 16 August , 1988.
The jury heard there was a gunfight between the police and the robbers with at least 11 shots fired.
Other officers involved in the stakeout heard and were on scene within minutes.
“We’ve got a member down, shot in the head. We need an ambulance urgent, and we’re missing another member,“ was the transmission over the police radio.
Sgt Silk’s gun was still in its holster, unused. Sen Const Miller fired four shots from his police-issue weapon and was hit once.
He knew he was dying. In pain but lucid he was able to describe the car, one of the men and identified two offenders, Mr Ihle said.
“Make sure you get those c***s,“ Sen Const Miller said as he was loaded into an ambulance. He died in hospital.
Prosecutors allege Roberts fired a .38 calibre round that struck Sgt Silk in the chest. He was struck twice more, in the hip and head, with .357 rounds prosecutors attribute to Debs’ weapon.
The first shot to Sgt Silk’s chest could have caused death in under a minute, Mr Ihle said.
That murder charge against Roberts is argued in three ways – that he was directly liable for Sgt Silk’s murder, that he aided and abetted Debs in his shooting of Sgt Silk, or that there was a joint criminal enterprise and they had acted in agreement to use their firearms to resist apprehension.
The single shot that killed Sen Cont Miller was a .38 calibre round alleged to have come from Debs’ weapon.
“We do not suggest and will not suggest that (Roberts) shot Sen Const Miller,“ Mr Ihle said.
They instead allege Roberts is guilty of murder by aiding and abetting Debs, or through a joint criminal enterprise.
