A cashed-up drug dealer too stingy to pay for a rise in the cost of cannabis was brutally murdered days later as he tried to source a new supplier, prosecutors say.
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Samuel Hunter Thompson, 22, made thousands of dollars selling cannabis from his Brisbane home, stashing wads of cash and buying a new Ford Mustang with the proceeds, Brisbane Supreme Court was told on Friday.
But when his supplier tried to increase the price, he went looking for a new source and allegedly found Robert Vincenzo Boscaino and Ashley Dyball.
Thompson went to Bascaino's home on March 7, 2017 to collect his first shipment which he called "10 out of 10" and was never seen alive again.
Dyball and Bascaino allegedly ambushed Thomson as he tried to leave the property, believing cash and drugs were hidden in the Mustang, the court was told.
In a police interview, Bascaino claimed Dyball attacked Thompson and dragged him inside the house where he was hit in the face with an axe and killed.
The pair allegedly planned to steal the cash and sell the drugs for money.
Thompson's body was found almost a month after the attack in a shallow grave in a pine forest north of Brisbane with a tomahawk alongside him.
Boscaino has pleaded not guilty to murdering Thompson but offered to plead guilty to an alternative charge of being an accessory after the fact of murder - a deal rejected by the Crown.
He has pleaded guilty to a separate charge of interfering with a corpse.
Ashley Dyball, also charged with murder and interfering with a corpse, is yet to face trial.
In his opening address, prosecutor David Meredith told the court Thompson was captured on CCTV footage arriving at Boscaino's Bald Hills home at 10.46am on the day of the alleged murder.
Less than an hour later, Boscaino is seen leaving with a large metal toolbox in the back of his work utility.
"It is the prosecution case that Samuel Thompson is dead by that time," Mr Meredith said.
"Cash would be the motive for his murder."
The pair allegedly knew Thompson made a lot of money and believed cash and drugs we're hidden in the Mustang.
Police tracked Boscaino travelling on the Gateway Motorway toward the location where Thompson's body was found before returning home.
The timestamps allow a 25-minute window to allegedly bury the body.
Footage shows Boscaino later driving Thompson's distinctive Mustang, followed by Dyball in a separate vehicle.
The Mustang was left in a Brisbane car park before being dumped in Pottsville in northern NSW, with the journey tracked by traffic cameras along the M1.
The accused were later captured on security footage dumping bags of rubbish before Boscaino bought a new toolbox, a tomahawk, carpet cleaner and hydrochloric acid, Mr Meredith said.
The old toolbox was later found at Nugee tip with a towel inside and traces of acid.
Boscaino also hired a floor sander and when police searched his home, the wooden floor of the garage had been freshly sanded "to remove evidence", the prosecutor said.
The jury trial has been set down for 10 days with prosecutors to call 38 witnesses.
Australian Associated Press
