'Who pulled the trigger?': pair who murdered drug dealer face sentence hearing

From left, alleged murder victim David King, Elijah Cage and Tyson Stamp ... Cage was found guilty of murdering King at Salt Ash in 2021. A judge directed the jury to acquit Stamp of murder.

A NSW Supreme Court judge who will decide the fate of two men who murdered methamphetamine dealer David King in a drug rip gone wrong at Salt Ash in 2021 has said she may not be able to determine who pulled the trigger.

Mr King, a 45-year-old mid-level drug dealer from Tanilba Bay, was killed when he was shot once at close range with a shortened shotgun while desperately trying to flee a robbery and accelerating his ute down Hideaway Drive on the afternoon of August 29, 2021.

Two men, Elijah Cage and Max Lowcock, were in March found guilty of his murder, a jury satisfied the pair had planned the robbery, brought the loaded gun to the drug deal and were in the car with Mr King when he was fatally shot.

A third man, Tyson Stamp, who drove the pair to and from the scene and later torched the getaway vehicle, started the trial charged with murder but his barrister, Public Defender Peter Krisenthal, successfully applied for a directed verdict of not guilty at the conclusion of the prosecution case.

The trio faced a sentence hearing in NSW Supreme Court on Friday and listened as Crown prosecutor Liam Shaw read a victim impact statement on behalf of Mr King's mother and step-father.

"Words cannot express the amount of pain and sorrow that David's murder has impacted on our family," the statement said. "Irrelevant of David's past and mistakes, he was a good father, son, brother and a loving man. "He was the glue that held everyone together. "My heart is broken. As his mother, what I have had to endure I would not wish upon my worst enemy."

Justice Dina Yehia said there were a number of issues she would need to determine, including whether she was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Lowcock was the shooter and whether Cage played the more significant role in "instigating and organising" the ultimately fatal armed robbery.

"It may be that I cannot find beyond reasonable doubt who the shooter was and who actually brought the firearm into the deceased's vehicle," Justice Yehia said. "I have to, given the verdict, proceed on the basis that the firearm was part of the agreement to rip the deceased off, that it was brought there by one or other of Mr Cage or Mr Lowcock and it was in the car obviously when the deceased was shot. But I may not be able to find any more than that beyond a reasonable doubt."

Drug dealer David King was shot dead while driving down Hideaway Drive. Three men went on trial for his murder in Newcastle Supreme Court.

Lawyers for Cage and Lowcock painted pictures of young men from deprived and disadvantaged backgrounds who had fallen into drug use and violence and who were now institutionalised.

The longest period Cage had been out of jail since 2013 was six months, his barrister Public Defender Angus Webb said.

Defence barrister Leah Rowan said Justice Yehia could not be satisfied who brought the gun into the car and fired the fatal shot and said Lowcock's involvement in the planning of the robbery was last minute and almost spontaneous.

Cage on the other hand had been looking for a drug dealer to rip off for as long as a few weeks before the shooting and intercepted phone calls played during the trial showed he had zeroed in on Mr King.

Stamp who torched the hire car used to flee the shooting at the direction of Cage had spent nearly two years and five months behind bars before he was acquitted and granted bail.

Mr Krisenthal said on Friday that Stamp could receive a conviction with no further penalty, calling the offending an "aberration".

The three men will be sentenced on June 14.