An Adelaide drug dealer accused of murdering a man in his former high school's car park had no "murderous intent" and was just a "bully boy" wanting to send the victim a message, a Supreme Court trial has been told.
Kain Mazomenos, 26, Thomas Nicholls, 31, Thomas Pinnington, 25, and Jeremy Sandell, also 25, are standing trial for the murder of 24-year-old Victor Codea in an Adelaide High School car park in August 2020.
All four men have pleaded not guilty to murder but Mr Sandell has admitted to manslaughter.
Prosecutors have previously told the Supreme Court that Mr Codea was bashed to death over a barrage of "bad reviews" he had posted targeting drug dealer Mr Sandell on the social media platform Discord.
The court has previously heard comments centred on Mr Sandell being a "dodgy drug dealer".
However, Mr Sandell's lawyer, William Boucaut KC, told the trial on Thursday that his client only intended to "rough up" Mr Codea and "send a message".
"There can be no misunderstanding that the death of this young man was unnecessary," he told the court.
"It was brought about by violence, by bullying conduct in the context of a druggy sub-culture, posturing violence, chest-thumping type of background, but all of those things do not elevate … manslaughter to murder.
"He was obviously prepared to assault him or have him assaulted.
"[It's] the behaviour of a keyboard warrior, a bully boy who is going to teach a lesson but not somebody who has murder on his mind."
Accused 'went there unarmed', lawyer says
Mr Boucaut told the court that Mr Sandell had made "absolutely no effort to cover his tracks" and that it was well documented — through messages to others — that an assault would take place.
"If something serious was going to happen to Mr Codea the authorities, inevitably, would get involved and all paths would lead to Mr Sandell," Mr Boucaut said.
"I say that is not consistent with murderous intent, that he appears to be quite happy with people knowing that this is what's going to happen, he's going to teach this man a lesson and an assault [was] carried out.
"If you're going to do something really serious, you're hardly going to do it in a well-lit car park of the Adelaide High School where there are very obvious CCTV cameras."
The court was told that Mr Sandell was a former student at Adelaide High School and was familiar with the location.
Kain Mazomenos's lawyer, Nick Vadasz, told the trial there was "an agreement to meet" but prosecutors had not proved his client went to Adelaide High School intending to assault Mr Codea.
"[Prosecutors] haven't excluded as a reasonable possibility that the idea was to confront … without necessarily laying hands on him," he told the court.
"It has been raised in this matter that self-defence may be an issue, that Mr Codea reacted in the first instance.
"It's notorious these days that persons who traffic in drugs are armed. These men went there unarmed.
"At the end of the day, all that's been proven is there was contemplation of a touch-up."
The trial before Justice Adam Kimber, without a jury, continues.
