NSW

Ron Medich trial: Witness Lucky Gattellari denies he was the murder mastermind

Crown witness Fortunato "Lucky" Gattellari has denied he alone ordered a murder to hide thefts from Ron Medich, the property developer now on trial as an alleged mastermind of the shooting.

Mr Medich has pleaded not guilty to ordering the contract killing of Michael McGurk, a former business partner shot dead in the driveway of his Sydney home in 2009.

Gattellari, another former business partner of Mr Medich, pleaded guilty to arranging the murder and became the Crown's principal witness in exchange for a much shorter prison sentence.

"You were the one who organised the murder and nobody else," Mr Medich's barrister, Winston Terracini, SC, put to Gattellari in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.

"No, that's not correct," Gattellari replied.

Mr Terracini has spent days asking Gattellari about large sums of money Gattellari has described as undocumented, interest-free loans from Mr Medich that had no repayment term. He has denied "milking" Mr Medich for millions.

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On Tuesday morning, the court heard Mr McGurk had made comments at a lunch about Gattellari's management of a group of electrical companies he controlled with Mr Medich's financial backing.

"You were very, very concerned that monies you had stolen from Mr Medich would be uncovered weren't you?" Mr Terracini said.

Gattellari denied it. He rejected suggestions he and his physically imposing driver Senad Kaminic turned up to Mr McGurk's office to intimidate him into silence.

"I've never threatened anybody," he said. "Mr Kaminic has never threatened anybody on my behalf."

Gattellari said he had simply told Mr McGurk that he should mind his own business.

In other evidence, Gattellari was asked about the $600,000 Mr Medich allegedly gave him to arrange the murder of Mr McGurk and the subsequent intimidation of his widow, Kimberley McGurk.

Gattellari said he had passed around $450,000 of that to Mr Kaminic to arrange it.

He was then asked what happened to the other $150,000.

Gattellari said it was fed back into the electrical companies in which he and Mr Medich had interests.

He has testified Mr Medich handed him the cash for the murders in two Cryovac bags on two separate occasions at Mr Medich's home in the presence of Mr Kaminic.

Asked how certain he was that Mr Kaminic was in fact present, he said: "I think I'm pretty definite he was there."

The trial continues.