David Ungi was linked to the fatal shooting of Vinny Waddington by a Lucozade bottle left in the back of an Audi, a murder trial has heard.
The 31-year-old today went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of murdering the teenager, who was blasted in the chest with a shotgun after a crash on Banks Road in Garston nearly eight years ago. The defendant was then said to have fled to Spain, where he was eventually arrested last year while visiting a gym.
Peter Glenser KC, prosecuting, told a jury of seven men and five women this morning, Thursday, that the 18-year-old victim was "gunned down in cold blood" on the evening of July 14 2015. Mr Waddington had been the pillion passenger of a scrambler bike which was involved in a collision with the blue Audi A3 before he was shot dead.
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Jurors heard that "three men were responsible for his murder", with two men - Luke Kendrick and Ryan Bate - having previously been found guilty. Mr Glenser described Ungi as the "third man", adding: "We do not know which of the three men actually possessed the shotgun and pulled the trigger.
"I make it clear that we cannot say that the trigger man was David Ungi himself. But we do say that all three men intended at the very least to play his part in causing really serious harm or killing Vincent Waddington and Francis Humphries.
"Each are responsible for the actions of the other. It was a joint enterprise.
"The argument with the Waddington family was, as you will hear, David Ungi's argument. He was present in the car with the other two - they were all acting together.
"He, David Ungi, knew that at least one of the men in the car had a loaded shotgun. The men were together by arrangement, not coincidence."
The shooting came a day after Mr Waddington's 17-year-old brother Liam had been involved in an argument with Ungi, then aged 23, at Pro Flex Gym on Wood Street. 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 got out and 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 "three to four 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 his brother Michael Riccio as he "started to plan his flight from the United Kingdom to the continent".
The two men drove down to Dover the following morning before 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 2022 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 last year 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, will resume on Monday and is expected to last up to four weeks.
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