Bikies, snipers and snitches: Behind the scenes of WA’s biggest murder trial

It started with a bang – explosive testimony from the man who admitted to pulling the trigger in one of the most brazen underworld killings in Perth’s recent history.

Then, after hearing that many in WA’s underworld wanted Nick Martin dead, the trial was over.

David Pye, the man who is accused of paying $150,000 for the hit, is still awaiting his fate as the Supreme Court judge charged with deciding it has taken some time to consider the evidence that was put before him during the six-day trial.

That evidence consisted mostly of the testimony of a 39-year-old man whose identity is top secret, after he admitted to shooting Martin dead with a high-powered long-range rifle from precisely 365 metres away at Kwinana Motorplex in December 2020.

He’s now serving a 20-year sentence for the murder, a reduced stretch in return for testifying against Pye, after he claimed he was paid by the bikie to do the job. Pye says he is a compulsive and pathological liar, and that he had nothing to do with it.

The only evidence against him is the word of a convicted murderer.

But while the former soldier sat behind a protective wall of glass last week, and brazenly explained to the court how he carried out reconnaissance on Martin before shooting him dead in front of his friends and family, the trial became more than just a question of guilt or innocence.

It also offered an alarming but fascinating look into the gritty world of organised crime.

Through his evidence, we heard how Pye and Martin were once friends and allies, both members of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang. But Pye defected to the Comancheros, igniting a violent rivalry.

The court heard Martin allegedly wanted Pye dead, going so far as to tattoo a bullet with Pye’s name on his back. In an escalating cycle of revenge, Pye allegedly reciprocated, wanting Martin dead—a desire apparently shared by many others.

But it was an online conversation between Pye and the secret soldier in 2019, the beginnings of an allegedly deadly friendship, that prosecutors say put that plan into motion.

Pye, it seemed, was fascinated with the sniper who at the time was working as a mercenary in Iraq. He wanted to know more about the charity he was volunteering for, Shadows of Hope, so he messaged him on Instagram and the two struck up an unlikely friendship.

Months later when the soldier was back in Perth, he needed some drugs which he believed would help his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and so reached out to “the dodgiest person I knew”.

At the time, Pye was on house arrest after he was charged with assaulting an ex-girlfriend. The soldier told the court he went to his house to collect the drugs but instead, allegedly found himself being asked by Pye if he would kill and dispose of the woman.

“[Pye] said, ‘The reason I’m on house arrest is because of my ex-girlfriend, she’s a lying bitch … I’ve found out where she is ... I’ll give you $380,000 to kill her and dispose of her body’,” the sniper told the court last week.

The soldier said he turned down the request, citing a moral issue he had with killing innocent women.

Pye denies ever asking the man to kill his ex, but was later allegedly heard during a secretly recorded conversation ranting about how he would “murder” her and her entire family if she did not drop the charges.

Days after the soldier allegedly turned down the job, he says he was asked by Pye to kill Martin instead.

“He basically wanted to blow holes in him with a .357 [pistol],” the former solider claimed.

He agreed to “look into it”, the sniper said, considering the job for the paltry sum of $150,000.

For weeks, he claims, he “tailed” Martin as he came and went from his house, trying to find a pattern of behaviour that would enable him to set up and carry out the kill.

He bought a drone, the court was told, and flew it over his house to assess his security set up.

But he later decided the best place to murder the 51-year-old was in front of 2000 people, in the dark, from 365 metres away.

He sat among some bushes, he said, on the far side of the Kwinana Motorplex on December 12, 2020, and watched Martin through the lens of his rifle. He turned off his phone, he said, and then took the shot, firing one single bullet through his chest as he sat next to his wife, Amanda, his step-daughter Stacey and a bunch of horrified friends and onlookers.

The bullet exited Martin’s back, brushing past the leg of his step-daughter’s boyfriend, Ricky Chapman, before embedding itself in his arm. The then 31-year-old survived the shot but died 16 months later from an unrelated medical episode.

Through a typed statement he gave to police before his death, Chapman recalled watching Martin getting CPR as the crowd scrambled to try and work out what had happened.

On the other side of the track, the sniper calmly packed up his rifle and headed back to his car before driving to the beach and disposing of his clothes and shoes in a public bin.

News of Martin’s dramatic death had already started to spread.

When he turned on his phone, he says he received a text message from Pye that contained two coffin emojis and a hand clap.

“Was there two?” the soldier says he responded.

“One dead, one serious,” Pye allegedly replied

Police then started to close in on possible suspects and a number of them gave evidence last week that Pye was top of their list. They installed secret listening devices into his house to watch the comings and goings via undercover surveillance.

In the weeks that followed, after the heat had died off, Pye allegedly then asked the shooter if he would carry out another murder. He allegedly wanted exiled Comanchero Ray Cilli dead and, according to his new sniper friend, asked if he would do it.

This time the pay was $800,000.

Again, the soldier claims, he made no promises but took a part payment that he buried in the dirt near his home while he considered his options.

But before he could make a move, he was arrested for murder.

He initially denied involvement, but police later offered him a deal: testify against the alleged mastermind, Pye, and his time behind bars would be significantly reduced.

They must have felt like they had struck gold when he agreed. The bikie code of silence means prosecuting any of them is notoriously difficult. But the sniper was not a bikie. And after being told his then-girlfriend and his entire family would have to go into witness protection as a result of what he had done, he relented and agreed to be the prosecution’s star witness.

Or a snitch.

Or a complete liar who knew he was going down for murder and wanted an easy ride.

It depends on who you ask.

The trial will reconvene on Wednesday at 10am where lawyers for both camps will put forward their closing submissions to judge Joseph McGrath who will then take some time to consider his verdict.