A witness to the alleged murder of an Adelaide drug dealer has recalled how she moved him to the passenger seat of his car and drove him to hospital.
Kain Mazomenos, 26, Thomas Nicholls, 31, Jeremy Sandell, 25, and Thomas Pinnington, also 25, are standing trial in South Australia's Supreme Court for the bashing murder of 24-year-old Victor Codea in the front car park of Adelaide High School in August 2020.
All four men have pleaded not guilty to murder, but Sandell has admitted to manslaughter.
The prosecution previously told the court the attack was motivated by a barrage of "bad reviews" targeting Sandell on a social media platform used by those in the Adelaide drug trade.
The witness, whose identity is suppressed, told the court she had met Mr Codea at the Welland Plaza car park earlier that night to buy "ice" from him that she planned to take at an event the next day.
As she was buying the drugs, she said Mr Codea told her to get in his car, so she sat in the back seat, while Sandell sat in the front passenger seat.
She told the court she did not feel like socialising after a big day at work, but Mr Codea, who she had known through university and mutual friends for about five years, "persisted" and said the trip would only take 10 minutes.
The court heard the trio drove through the city before turning into the Adelaide High School car park.
After arriving, the two men in the front — Mr Codea and Sandell — exchanged money and drugs, before another car pulled into the car park and "blocked in" Mr Codea's car.
Kicks not 'fairy taps'
As the witness sat in the back seat, three men from the second car got out and opened the front doors to Mr Codea's car.
She said from the passenger side, one man began kicking Mr Codea and another man punched him in the head from the driver's side, while a third man stood about one metre back.
Describing the force of the kicks, she told the court: "they were kicks, they weren't fairy taps".
Scared, she ran out of the car and curled up behind a ledge.
"[I was] sick and scared and couldn't really breathe," she said.
While behind the ledge, she heard the second car driving off, so she went to Mr Codea's aid.
As she pulled him from the driver's seat where he sat with his seatbelt still buckled, she said he collapsed as he placed his two feet on the ground.
She said she then put him in the front passenger seat and decided the quickest way to get help was to drive him herself to the nearby Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Mr Codea died a week later in hospital from blunt force trauma.
The trial continues.
