A group of teens grabbed an ice cream about 20 minutes before they callously ran down a 14-year-old boy and stabbed him to death with machetes, a jury has been told.
One of the teens, who was 17 at the time, is on trial in the Victorian Supreme Court, accused of being complicit in the murder of Ethan Hoac in Melbourne‘s northwest on June 26, 2023.
Ethan was walking with two friends along Furlong Road in St Albans about 10.52pm when the group drove at him in a Volkswagen Tiguan, striking the younger boy.
Ethan was flung into the air and two teens jumped out of the Tiguan with machetes, running at the boy and stabbing him while he was on the ground.
He suffered 30 stab wounds in the attack and died on the way to hospital.
Crown prosecutor Erin Ramsey told the jury the teen on trial was the driver of the vehicle, rather than one of the boys who used a machete.
But she alleged he was still guilty of murder because he had reached an agreement with the other teens to kill or seriously injury Ethan.
Ms Ramsey outlined to the jury the group’s movements before Ethan’s death, describing how they drove around Melbourne for several hours before buying an ice cream about 10.29pm.
Ethan Hoac was killed when he was stabbed with a machetes on a Melbourne street
Detectives at the scene investigate after the 2023 attack on the teenager
The group then drove past Ethan and his friends on Furlong Road about five minutes before Ethan was struck, the jury was told.
After the attack, the teens drove to the Sydenham Tennis Club where they were shown on CCTV footage inspecting the vehicle for damage and re-enacting the stabbing motions.
The teen and one of his co-accused also purchased hot cakes from McDonalds at 5.44am before they returned to their respective homes.
Defence barrister Philip Dunn KC told the jury it was not disputed that his client was behind the wheel of the car or that he went to the various locations around the time of Ethan’s death.
‘There is no dispute from defence here that the other men killed him – they murdered him, they chopped him up with machetes,’ Mr Dunn said.
What was in dispute was the accused’s understanding and intentions at the time of the attack, the defence barrister said.
‘You should have reasonable doubt about what was in his mind – there are other reasonable inferences you can draw,’ Mr Dunn said.
‘Things happened rapidly, spontaneously. Things spiralled very rapidly and tragically.’
He urged the jury to consider whether there was some interaction between Ethan’s group and the teens in the lead-up to the attack.
Mr Dunn also told the jury they should be critical of the evidence from Ethan’s friends, saying they may have deliberately hidden things from the police.
The trial before Justice Amanda Fox is expected to run for three weeks.
