Two men accused of the murder of a Newborough man three years ago will avoid a trial in the Melbourne Supreme Court, which was set to start next week.
The co-accused have pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting they "killed" 37-year-old Jarrad Lovison in bushland north of Moe.
Jake Brown, 31 of Trafalgar, Andrew Price, 49, of Moondarra, and Samantha Guillerme, 26, of Moe, were charged with the alleged murder of Jarrad Lovison in 2020.
Guillerme's murder charge was later downgraded when prosecution lawyers conceded she did not know Mr Lovison would be killed.
She was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail, with a non-parole period of one year and three months, and was eligible for parole late last month.
An updated indictment served this week downgraded the charge of murder to manslaughter for the two men who will face court again on June 9.
Price was granted bail in 2022 due to a medical condition while Brown successfully applied for bail later in the year.
Lured to remote spot
A committal hearing for Price and Brown heard evidence that Jake Brown asked his lover, Samantha Guillerme, to lure Mr Lovison to the remote spot.
Guillerme's barrister argued she did not know Brown and Price planned to kill Lovison, only that he might "get the shit kicked out of him".
She struck a deal with prosecutors to give evidence against Brown and Price.
In a pre-sentencing hearing, defence lawyers argued giving evidence was no easy task and would mean she was forever a "marked woman".
Prosecutors alleged Brown and Price forced or tricked Mr Lovison into taking a lethal dose of the drug GHB, which goes by the street name "juice".
In 2021, the Melbourne Magistrates Court heard prosecutors allege Price and Mr Lovison had previously fought over Mr Lovison's ex-girlfriend Ange O'Brien, who was in a relationship with Price at the time of Mr Lovison's death.
Prosecutors alleged in court that Mr Lovison had broken Price's arms and slashed his tyres.
The search for victim
Police searched for Mr Lovison for 38 days before his body was recovered in the Moondarra State Park, north of Moe on May 23, 2020.
The Victoria Police Missing Persons Unit appealed for information from the community a number of times, before announcing in June they suspected a group of people took him to the bush before killing him.
Mr Lovison rode a distinctive large green bike, which was sighted in Tanjil South days after his disappearance.
In October that year, police arrested and charged Guillerme, followed by Brown and Price, with his alleged murder.
Mr Lovison's parents, John and Dianne, pleaded for information relating to their son's disappearance, after the last known sighting of Mr Lovison as he rode his bicycle towards Moondarra about 3am on April 16.
He was on his way to meet Guillerme, with no idea Price and Brown would be waiting for him.
It was in that area, a short distance from the roadside that his body would be found.
Family's heartache
At a plea hearing, Mr Lovison's father, John, read out a victim impact statement to Guillerme, talking about his family's devastation at the loss of their son.
"You have totally ripped our lives and our hearts apart and they will never be whole again," he said.
"You had no right to do that. You have devastated us.
"You have destroyed our lives in so many ways and you could not even begin to comprehend our lives as they are now."
He said she had taken away "from us the most beautiful, precious thing that we had in this whole world" and he struggled to sleep and had been socially isolated since his son's death.
