A man accused of murdering a former bikie told his community supervision officer he wanted to attend the victim's funeral to view the body and pay his respects.
John Jamie Tozer, 38, said he was “a bit upset due to the death of a friend” at a delayed meeting in relation to a community supervision order at Blacktown in Sydney’s west in February 2017.
Tozer said he was unsure how his friend died.
Police were yet to formally identify 35-year-old Ricky Ciano’s decomposing body, found in a BMW M3 near Oberon in the NSW central tablelands on February 14, 2017, when Tozer spoke with homicide detectives in the carpark of Mt Druitt Westfield on February 15, causing him to miss his appointment.
Tozer told them he was concerned by Mr Ciano's disappearance as the pair would speak daily, and feared something had happened as it was unusual for him to have missed Valentine’s Day with his wife.
Tozer was under a community corrections order and told a supervisor he wanted to attend Mr Ciano’s funeral when they met the next day.
“He wanted to attend the viewing (of) the body,” she told the NSW Supreme Court on Monday.
“And pay his respects to his wife.”
The supervisor said it was probably not in his best interests and would not contribute to “his new pathway”.
Members of outlaw motorcycle gangs Tozer had been banned from associating with would likely attend.
Tozer had also been banned specifically from associating with Mr Ciano, weeks after he was banned generally from associating with bikies.
He asked to take a photo of that order to send Mr Ciano.
“He didn’t want Ricky to think bad of him,” the supervising officer said when questioned by Tozer’s barrister Avni Djemal.
NSW Police Detective Sergeant James Long also attended the meeting and recalled Tozer asking, but did not remember him being advised not to go to the funeral.
Tozer had told him he had not seen or heard from Mr Ciano when Det Sgt Long contacted him on the day the body was found.
He “adamantly stated he had no idea what happened” when he spoke to homicide squad Detective Sergeant Neil Sheldon the next day.
Tozer said Mr Ciano rarely drank but had been using heroin heavily in recent months, stemming from an addiction to prescription painkillers, Det Sgt Sheldon told the court.
NSW Police forensic investigator Detective Sergeant Hannah Roberts took trace DNA swabs from a used syringe found inside the BMW.
Blood was also found in the vehicle, and Mr Ciano's underpants and socks were heavily blood stained and rigid, Det Sgt Roberts told the court.
Mr Ciano's widow Rachel previously told the jury she did not know her husband became president of the Rebels’ Gold Coast chapter.
Her husband paid for everything and she understood the majority of their income came from illegal activities but was comfortable being “in the dark” about the specifics, and was three months' pregnant when her husband died.
Mr Ciano left the Rebels in 2015, with Tozer among members turning in their colours out of solidarity, the court has heard.
The jury has been told Tozer and Mr Ciano maintained a close relationship which ended shortly before the latter’s death some time between February 10 and February 14, 2017, allegedly at the hand of the former, helped by his half-brother Daniel Michael Bushell, 49.
Tozer and Bushell have both pleaded not guilty to murder and the trial continues.
