Gambler Kubilay Kilincer would never win "employee of the year" but that didn't mean he brutally murdered his boss in 1995, a jury has been told.
And even if the jurors had a grave suspicion that didn't mean the Crown had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, barrister Ertunc Ozen SC said on Friday.
He was giving the defence final address at the NSW Supreme Court trial of 60-year-old Kilincer.
He's pleaded not guilty to murdering Hasan Dastan in his western Sydney Esy Auto Dismantlers business on the morning of December 11, 1995.
He was found dead in a pool of blood lying partially under a car.
A metal pipe was shoved six centimetres into his mouth and his severe head injuries were consistent with an attack using a bloodied sledgehammer that lay nearby.
Referring to Mr Dastan's terrible death and the gruesome photos of the scene, Mr Ozen said it would be inhuman not to feel sympathy for him and his family.
But as difficult as it may be, the jurors had a duty as judges of the facts to be dispassionate in their deliberations.
"Kubilay Kilincer did not kill Hasan Dastan," he said.
"I don't know who did and can I suggest when you consider all the evidence before you, you will also come to the conclusion you cannot say beyond a reasonable doubt who in fact killed the deceased."
Kilincer, Mr Dastan's only full-time employee, was tardy, on occasions he was slack with his work ethic and it seemed he was skimming from the business, he said.
"He was never going to win employee of the year."
He also had a reputation of having a gambling problem and had run around asking for small loans, he said.
"None of that means that Kubilay Kilincer must have been the one who killed Hasan Dastan on the morning of 11 December."
He said it was clear Kilincer left the premises before 10 o'clock that day before paying bills and visiting the Department of Social Security with his wife.
He went to the post office to pay his housing commission debt, but Mr Ozen noted he did not pay all of his rental arrears.
It was a matter for the jury that he didn't pay it in full despite being said to have taken $6000 from the pocket of his dead boss.
Mr Ozen said Kilincer was the prime suspect from a very early point in the investigation and voluntarily spoke to police.
"On four separate occasions, without a lawyer, he co-operated with police and provided additional information as it came to him."
Police placed a secret listening device in his home for seven days.
While there was plenty of discussions and arguments about money, Mr Ozen said there was nothing from Kilincer about killing his boss.
Over the last 27 years police had used very extensive resources on the investigation.
He asked the jurors to imagine Kilincer's situation being arrested after 25 years and then being required to provide certain information.
"Kubilay Kilincer was the last known person to see the deceased, that is the last person we know to have seen the deceased," he said.
That was obviously the reason why police concentrated on him early but it also meant their resources were used on him and not anybody else.
"In particular, two persons of interest don't seem to have been contacted or found by investigators prior to 2017," he said.
He told the jurors that if after considering all the evidence, they had a suspicion or even a grave suspicion, that was not "proven beyond a reasonable doubt".
He will continue his address on Monday.
