David Ungi has told a jury that he was working out at the gym when Vinny Waddington was shot dead.
Ungi is currently standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of murdering Mr Waddington. The 18-year-old was fatally blasted in the chest with a shotgun nearly seven years ago after a crash on Banks Road in Garston.
The 31-year-old defendant was called to give evidence from the witness box yesterday afternoon, Wednesday. During his testimony, Ungi claimed that he had fled the UK after coming under threat following the shooting and did not know that he was carrying a loaded firearm at the time of his eventual arrest in Spain.
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On the stand, he described an altercation with Mr Waddington's younger brother, 17-year-old Liam, the day before the murder as "literally just a push and a shove, something two school kids would do in the playground". He denied having threatened to shoot the teen, hit him with a dumbbell or accused him of being "with the grasses" during this dispute at Pro Flex Gym on Wood Street.
Ungi reported that this had erupted after the teenager "looked at him and said 'who the f*** am I looking at'", at which point he responded "I'm looking at you, you divvy". He told the court: "He's pushed me and I've pushed him back.
"That's literally what's happened. He's got on his bike and he's drove off."
Ungi stated that Mr Waddington was asked to leave the gym following the incident, adding: "He started screaming and shouting, people got in between him and told him to leave because he was screaming and shouting. I hit him with nothing, if I hit him with a pole or something like that I would have hurt him.
"I didn't even think about it. I found it quite funny, just the way he acted over somebody looking at him."
Ungi claimed that he did not know either of the Waddington brothers at the time and "only found out when he become wanted who they actually were". He said he was in the same gym at the time of the shooting the following evening, having initially taken a taxi there with Ryan Bate.
His "good friend" was then said to have gone outside to use his phone then returned to say he was "going to buy weed" from Luke Kendrick and left. Both Bate and Kendrick were previously convicted of Mr Waddington's murder.
Asked how a Lucozade bottle with his fingerprints on it came to be discovered in the back of the Audi involved in the murder, Ungi said: "I don't know exactly, I've never been in that car in my life. The only thing I can think is Ryan's picked up my drink by mistake and took it in the car with him."
Quizzed on why he had subsequently fled the country, he claimed that he had been told that friends of Mr Waddington had issued threats to associates of Bate and Kendrick in retaliation. Ungi said he was informed that "anyone to do with Ryan or Luke are getting it", and he worried that he was at risk because "Ryan's one of my good mates".
He also stated that there had been "crazy stuff" in the immediate aftermath - including "people driving around attacking people", "smashing windows" and throwing petrol bombs while "someone had a car put through their house". While later visiting his cousin Ron Fitzgibbon at his home in Otterspool, his brother Michael Riccio allegedly urged him to leave the country.
Ungi said: "Ryan's one of my good mates. I'd probably be at the top of the list.
"I lost my dad as a kid, I nearly lost my brother. I was just scared.
"When I got to Ron's, Michael showed up. He started stressing, getting worried, telling me to leave.
"He started stressing, getting angry, telling me 'look what's happened to all the family'. You might as well get away for a bit.
"I was never running from the police. It's because one of my mates was involved and they were looking for anyone to do with him.
"They will go after anyone close to the people who done it. It will calm down, and by the time I come back it will all be ok.
"I was going to come back after a few weeks. When I was away, I saw news articles saying 'David Ungi, the baby-faced assassin wanted for murder'.
"It was saying I was in the back of the car. I seen all that, with all the police and the lies.
"They lie about us. I didn't think I'd get a fair trial, it's basically making me guilty in the eyes of the people."
Ungi added that he was "s***ting himself because "people were trying to kill him". He said he had stayed in France "for a bit" after arriving via the Channel Tunnel before moving onwards to Spain.
Police eventually arrested him in May 2022 while visiting a gym after staking out a house where he was residing in the town of Coin, around 20 miles from Malaga. When detained, Ungi was carrying a backpack which he had been handed by another man he had been living with - which contained a loaded 9mm parabellum pistol.
A search of their address also revealed a self-loading "fully functional" Colt .45 calibre pistol, a "partially converted" blank-firing Zoraki pistol and a quantity of ammunition. He said that he thought the rucksack had been a "gym bag to go to the gym with", adding: "I didn't know I had a handgun at that time.
"I just got passed a bag, I didn't know it had a gun in it. My friend passed me the bag and it had a gun in it."
Ungi also highlighted an eyewitness account describing a man who exited the back of the car as being 6ft and of "slim build", saying: "You're saying I'm the backseat passenger. I'm 5ft4.
"I'm fat and chubby. If you want to be kind, stocky."
Peter Glenser KC told the court during the prosecution's opening that Mr Waddington was "gunned down in cold blood" on the evening of July 14 2015. He had been the pillion passenger of a scrambler bike which was involved in a crash with an Audi A3 before he was shot dead.
The jury heard that "three men were responsible for his murder", with two men - Kendrick and Bate - having previously been found guilty. Mr Glenser described Ungi, formerly of Melbreck Road in Allerton, as the "third man".
The shooting came a day Liam Waddington had been involved in an argument with Ungi, then 23, at Pro Flex Gym. In a WhatsApp message sent to his girlfriend in the early afternoon of July 13, Vinny said: "Our kid has just had murder with David Ungi in the gym, it's going off."
The following evening, the car and two motorbikes were seen "riding around" Garston and Speke. One witness described hearing an "exchange of words" between the Audi and one bike, which was described by another member of the public as driving "fast and stupidly".
The vehicles then crashed at around 8.45pm, with the red scrambler coming to rest underneath the car. An occupant of the Audi was subsequently said to have shot both Mr Waddington and Francis Humphries, the rider of the motorbike.
The former managed to flee to the garden of a nearby house in the aftermath. He was later rushed to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, but died as a result of a shotgun wound to the left-hand side of his chest.
Mr Humphries meanwhile managed to "get himself away from the three men" and was driven away by a friend who happened to be passing the scene in his car. He too attended hospital that evening after suffering several wounds "from shotgun pellets", but was not seriously injured and was discharged shortly afterwards.
Ungi's DNA was then discovered on a Lucozade bottle in the rear of the car in the passenger's side. The same night, he was in contact with Mr Riccio as he allegedly "started to plan his flight from the United Kingdom to the continent".
The two men drove down to Dover the following morning, Ungi travelling via Eurostar and his brother boarding a ferry to France. Mr Riccio returned to England two days later.
Mr Glenser said that "not much is known" of Ungi's subsequent movements, but in May last year police in Spain received intelligence that he was "hiding out" in a town called Coin on the Costa Del Sol. They "kept watch" on a house for several days before tailing him to a gym on May 5 and arresting him before his extradition back to the UK.
Ungi, who is defended by Caroline Goodwin KC, denies murder and attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm. The trial, before Justice Julian Goose, continues.
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