A man was bashed to death on a freeway off-ramp after an argument over a parking spot, according to court documents.
Phi Long Ung was beaten into a coma last July and left on the side of the road bleeding heavily with severe head injuries, after a midnight car crash on the Western Ring Road in July 2015. He died two weeks later.
Christopher Orfanidis, 31, was charged with Mr Ung's murder. He is is also accused of assaulting Mr Ung's friend – known as Witness A – who was in the car with Mr Ung, and of placing the pair in danger of serious injury and of death.
Bill Panagiotidis, 39, was also charged with helping to remove and hide Mr Orfanidis' car later on, and with intending to pervert the course of justice.
The pair appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday for a committal hearing before Magistrate Sarah Dawes.
Court documents said that Mr Orfanidis and an unknown male passenger had earlier chased the car Ung and Witness A were travelling in, after a verbal fight over a parking spot.
The summary said Mr Orfanidis was "furious" when he found Witness A and Mr Ung had parked their car near a friend's house, in front of a vacant block in Sunshine West earlier that night. Days earlier, Mr Orfanidis had told them not to park there, and they had apologised, with Witness A saying he would park elsewhere.
Mr Orfanidis got out of his car and approached the pair, saying "I told you to get out of here last time and I don't want to see you again," the summary said. He punched and kicked the car, damaging the driver's side-view mirror.
The victims drove away but got into a verbal fight with Mr Orfanidis and his passenger when they turned back around to try to get to their friend's house, the documents say.
Mr Orfanidis allegedly threatened to kill them if they returned again. "The deceased then threatened to kill Orfanidis if he tried that. Orfanidis then stated 'That's it, you're fucked, we're going to get you now.'"
The summary said Mr Orfanidis caught up to the car and rammed into it from behind on the off-ramp at Ballarat Road, sending it spinning out of control. The victims' car then slammed into a guard rail on the side of the road.
Mr Orfanidis and his passenger got out of their car and allegedly beat Mr Ung and Witness A respectively.
Mr Orfanidis struck Mr Ung to the side of the head with a gun, knocking him to the ground, and then continued to kick and punch him.
When Witness A tried to intervene, the summary said, he was pushed to the ground, where the unknown man stomped on him, and kicked his head and ribs. Mr Orfanidis allegedly also hit him several times.
The pair allegedly drove away in both Mr Orfanidis' and Witness A's car, which was later found on fire with the gun inside.
Mr Orfanidis called his friend Anderson Latu after the fight and asked him to meet him.
Mr Latu told the court on Monday that he could tell something bad had happened, as there were tears in Mr Orfanidis' eyes.
Mr Ung's former partner, Thi Nguyen, told the court that when she visited him in hospital, he had a mark on his face resembling the pattern of a gun she had seen him with. When she previously asked him why he needed a gun, he said it was to protect himself, though he would not say from whom.
Mr Ung had used heroin and ice before he died and was on the methadone program, though Ms Nguyen said he did not deal drugs.
She previously told police he had made a metal vest which he wore when he went out.
"He did not tell me why he was wearing it," she said.
The hearing continues.