Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara sentenced to life in jail for Jamie Gao murder
TWO disgraced ex-cops who plotted the cold-blooded execution of Sydney student Jamie Gao to steal millions of dollars of ice from him will die in jail.
Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara were each sentenced to life in prison with no prospect of parole for the shooting murder of the 20-year-old drug dealer.
Mr Gao’s tarpaulin-wrapped body was found floating off the coast of Cronulla nearly a week after he was shot twice in the chest inside a Padstow storage unit on May 20, 2014.
Each man pointed the finger of blame for his death at the other.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Bellew described the murder as cold-blooded and meticulously pre-planned and said the pair were “motivated by greed”.
“The joint criminal enterprise was extensive in its planning, brutal in its execution and callous in its aftermath,” he said.
“The use of a weapon, the fact the offences were committed in company, the fact it was planned and the fact it was committed for financial gain, are all aggravating factors.
“The offenders acted with complete disregard for the life of another human being.”
A jury found the pair both guilty of killing Mr Gao in the Padstow storage unit on May 20, 2014 following a four month trial earlier this year.
They were also found guilty of possessing a commercial drug supply, after the jury accepted prosecution allegations that they “ripped off” Mr Gao of 2.78kg of the drug ice with an estimated street value of up to $19 million.
Both Rogerson, 75, and McNamara, 57, pleaded not guilty at trial, each claiming the other man was behind the two fatal shots in the young student’s chest.
Rogerson claimed he walked inside the storage unit to see Mr Gao already dead on the floor and that McNamara claimed the student pulled a gun and shot himself during a struggle.
McNamara claimed Rogerson shot Mr Gao twice after the 20-year-old threatened him with a knife.
Justice Bellew said it was impossible to prove beyond reasonable doubt who fired the fatal shot, though forensic evidence pointed to it more likely to be Rogerson.
He described the crime as heinous, saying McNamara had befriended the 20-year-old. gaining his trust, while all along planning to kill him in cold blood.
In determining the life sentence for each man, he said there were no mitigating factors in their offending.
“The respective accounts of each offender were diametrically opposed, I’m satisfied neither account was truthful,” he said.
“The deceased was executed in cold blood, just as the offenders had planned.”
Justice Bellew said the murder was calculatingly premeditated.
MacNamara had purchased a white station wagon in the lead-up to the crime in which to transport Mr Gao’s body.
He had a surfboard cover in which to conceal it and had purchased a boat with which to dispose of it at sea.
“There is nothing amateurish or unprofessional about acquiring a motor vehicle that could not be traced and having a boat ready and available as a means of disposing of the body of a deceased person,” he said.
“The fact that aspects of it were captured on CCTV demonstrates not that it was offending that was unprofessional but that it was audacious.”
He said neither man had shown remorse over the crime and Rogerson continued to maintain he had no respect for Mr Gao as he had been a drug dealer.
“Despite Rogerson’s stated disdain for drug dealers he and McNamara murdered the deceased to become drug dealers themselves,” Justice Bellew said.
“It’s reflective of a position dripping with hypocrisy.”
In his closing address at the end of the trial, crown prosecutor Chris Maxwell, QC, said both men were in on the murder plot, which Justice Bellew agreed with.
He said the ex-detectives planned to kill the student and steal 2.78kg of methamphetamine from him.
“This is a plan that would need two people — Glen McNamara to lure Jamie Gao down to unit 803 and Roger Rogerson to go down pretending to be the money man,” Mr Maxwell said.
“The Crown says this is a two-man job, not just in achieving the rip-off but, equally importantly, in getting rid of the body, you might think, almost inevitably involving having two men.”
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