Evangelos Goussis is a Melbourne underworld hitman convicted of two murders committed in 2004, in the middle of the city's gangland war. The first conviction, for the murder of Lewis Caine in May 2004, brought a sentence of 20 years with a minimum of 15. The second, for the murder of Lewis Moran in March 2004, was returned by a Supreme Court jury on May 29, 2008, and on February 9, 2009, Justice Betty King sentenced him to life imprisonment with a new minimum term of 30 years. The judge found that the Moran murder was committed for financial gain.
He was tried a third time, in 2014, for the murder of Shane Chartres-Abbott in Reservoir in 2003. The jury found him not guilty of murder and of the alternative charge of manslaughter, so that death forms no part of his convictions.
Lewis Moran was 58 when he was killed in March 2004 in Brunswick, an inner northern suburb of Melbourne. A man who was with him on the night became the subject of an attempted murder charge. Two months later, in May 2004, Lewis Caine was killed in Melbourne.
The Caine killing was the first of the two to reach a verdict. By January 20, 2006, Goussis, then 38, and a second man, Keith Faure, had both been found guilty of Caine's murder in the Supreme Court of Victoria. At a plea hearing that month Goussis made pre-sentence submissions, and Faure chose not to.
Sentence was passed on May 3, 2006. Goussis received 20 years with a minimum of 15 for his part in Caine's death. Faure was sentenced to 24 years for the Caine murder. Faure had also pleaded guilty to the murder of Lewis Moran, after agreeing to give evidence against a co-accused, and for that offense received life imprisonment with a minimum of 19 years, a term fixed under that agreement.
Goussis was charged with the murder of Lewis Moran and with the attempted murder of the man who had been with him. The trial took place in the Supreme Court of Victoria before a jury. A witness who could not then be named gave evidence against him. The defense case was that Goussis was with his family at the time.
On May 29, 2008, the jury returned its verdicts. It found Goussis guilty of the murder of Lewis Moran and not guilty of the attempted murder of the second man. Goussis, then 40, was already serving the sentence for the Caine murder, with its minimum of 15 years.
Justice Betty King passed sentence on February 9, 2009. She imposed life imprisonment and fixed a new minimum term of 30 years, and she found that the murder had been carried out for financial gain.
He becomes eligible for parole in 2039. In July 2014 he was serving a minimum 30-year sentence for the murders of Lewis Moran and Lewis Caine.
Shane Chartres-Abbott was 28 when he died in Reservoir in June 2003. In 2014 Goussis stood trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria for his murder, together with two other men. The trial opened before a jury on May 1, 2014. The Crown put the three accused as parties to a joint criminal enterprise; none of them was alleged to have carried out the killing himself, and the man who admitted carrying it out had pleaded guilty and gave evidence for the Crown. Defense lawyers told the jury that their clients had nothing to do with the death.
After a trial of about two months the jury deliberated for four and a half days. On July 8, 2014, it found all three accused not guilty of murder and not guilty of the alternative charge of manslaughter. At that date Goussis, 46, was serving his sentence for the Moran and Caine murders.
Goussis lost his final appeal against his convictions. His sentence is life imprisonment, with parole eligibility in 2039. The Moran and Caine convictions stand.
In these cases a Supreme Court jury decided guilt and the trial judge set the sentence. Goussis received a determinate term of 20 years with a minimum of 15 for the Caine murder, and life imprisonment with a new minimum of 30 years for the Moran murder. Faure received life with a minimum of 19 years for the Moran murder, a term the court fixed under an agreement that he would give evidence. Goussis was also tried before a jury in 2014 on a third charge, and the acquittal on that charge left his two convictions as they were.
Goussis was found not guilty of the murder of Shane Chartres-Abbott and of manslaughter, and that death is not among his convictions. The Crown's account of a joint criminal enterprise was not accepted by the jury.
At the Moran trial the defense case was that Goussis was elsewhere with his family. The jury rejected it on the murder count.
June 2003: Shane Chartres-Abbott dies in Reservoir.
March 2004: Lewis Moran, 58, dies in Brunswick.
May 2004: Lewis Caine dies in Melbourne.
Before January 20, 2006: Goussis and Keith Faure found guilty of the murder of Lewis Caine.
January 20, 2006: plea hearing in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
May 3, 2006: Goussis sentenced to 20 years with a minimum of 15; Faure sentenced for the Caine and Moran murders.
May 29, 2008: jury finds Goussis guilty of the murder of Lewis Moran and not guilty of attempted murder.
February 9, 2009: sentenced by Justice Betty King to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years.
May 1, 2014: the Chartres-Abbott murder trial opens.
July 8, 2014: jury finds Goussis and two other men not guilty of murder and of manslaughter.
Later: loses his final appeal; parole eligibility in 2039.