Adam Bidner, accused of murdering rival scrap metal scavenger Shane Mears when he ran him down from behind in the Cessnock tip in 2020, had allegedly threatened the 54-year-old a day earlier, telling him: "I'm going to end you Mearsey and you won't even see it coming", a jury has been told.
Mr Bidner, now 32, of Aberdare, on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to murder, manslaughter, dangerous driving occasioning death and failing to stop and assist after vehicle impact causing death and faced the first day of an estimated four-week trial in Newcastle Supreme Court.
Mr Bidner and Mr Mears had been involved in an ongoing feud for more than a year when Mr Mears was run down from behind by a vehicle while scavenging for scrap metal in the Cessnock Waste Management Centre on the afternoon of July 5, 2020, Crown prosecutor Brian Costello said during his opening address.
And Mr Costello said the day before Mr Mears was killed, he was allegedly threatened by three men, including Mr Bidner, who told him: "I'm going to end you Mearsey and you wont even see it coming."
Mr Costello said Mr Mears was "sufficiently concerned" by the alleged threat to the extent that he told a friend: "If anything happens to me, look at those men."
"The very next day he was killed," Mr Costello told the jury. "And it is the Crown case that it was the accused who killed him."
Mr Costello said the feud and "ongoing animosity" between Mr Bidner and Mr Mears stemmed from an altercation between Mr Bidner and one of Mr Mears' friends in April, 2019, during which Mr Bidner was armed with a wooden object and Mr Mears' friend was injured.
The altercation was filmed and the video circulated around Cessnock before Mr Mears saw it and became angry with Mr Bidner, Mr Costello said.
After Mr Mears had offered to fight Mr Bidner a number of times over the next 12 months, Mr Costello said the feud allegedly came to a head inside the Cessnock Waste Management Centre.
Using bushtracks and holes in the fence, Mr Bidner, Mr Mears and four others had snuck into the tip after hours on the afternoon of July 5, 2020, to scavenge for scrap metal.
Mr Costello said no one, other than the driver of the car that struck Mr Mears, saw what happened, but it was the prosecution case that Mr Bidner was behind the wheel of his Toyota Landcruiser when he deliberately ran over Mr Mears from behind.
"It is the Crown case that the accused deliberately drove his vehicle into and partly over Mr Mears," Mr Costello said. "Striking him from behind, knocking him to the ground and then driving up and over his body until one of the tyres was resting on his shoulder and neck area."
Mr Costello said Mr Mears' friend found him lying face down in the dirt with a tyre track across his back. at 5.03pm and called for help.
And Mr Costello said that after allegedly striking Mr Mears with his car, Mr Bidner "left him for dead".
"He offered no help, did not call for emergency services and fled the area," Mr Costello said.
"He then concealed the vehicle and set about cleaning and disguising it."
During his opening address, defence barrister Mark Hobart, SC, told the jury police seized Mr Bidner's car a few days after Mr Mears' death and the tyres on the vehicle did not match the tyre marks found on the 54-year-old's shirt.
He also pointed out that despite police examining the vehicle they did not find any blood or DNA that would link the death of Mr Mears to Mr Bidner's Landcruiser.
The trial, before Justice Helen Wilson, continues.
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