Jury to deliberate landlord's cold case murder trial

A Supreme Court jury will soon begin deliberating in the trial of Steven Fredereick Johnson, who is charged with murdering a Warrnambool father who disappeared more than 20 years ago.

Mr Johnson, 74, has pleaded not guilty murdering Christopher Jarvis, who was 38 when he disappeared from his Wangoom home on June 13, 2006.

During the 21-day trial in Warrnambool, Crown prosecutors said Mr Johnson, a former police officer and landfill operator, orchestrated a violent attack on Mr Jarvis, his tenant, over $2,210 in unpaid rent.

But Mr Johnson's lawyers told the court he wanted to resolve the dispute lawfully and was not involved in the disappearance.

Mr Jarvis's body has never been found. 

'No coincidence'

Prosecutors said Mr Johnson orchestrated a violent ambush on Mr Jarvis in his driveway before he left for work early that morning.

The Crown said Mr Johnson fired a starter pistol in Mr Jarvis's ear, causing him to bleed from the head, before bundling him into his own car.

Prosecutors said Mr Johnson then drove the man to the nearby Framlingham Forest, where Mr Johnson allegedly killed Mr Jarvis by hitting him over the head with a baseball bat before he buried him in a shallow grave.

They told the court Mr Johnson then organised for Mr Jarvis's car to be torched 20 kilometres away at Thunder Point, a coastal lookout near Warrnambool.

During closing arguments, Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson KC told the court circumstantial evidence supported the Crown's case. 

Mr Gibson said this included that Mr Jarvis vanished the day before the men were due to appear at a contested hearing in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) over the rental dispute.

The court heard Mr Johnson wanted to be paid the overdue rent and had sought to evict his tenant from the property, while Mr Jarvis refused to pay rent or leave as he said his landlord owed him money for plumbing works and materials.

"It was no coincidence that [Mr Jarvis] went missing the day before that court case,"

Mr Gibson said.

Mr Gibson told the jury hostility and friction between the men had been growing in the lead-up to the disappearance.

He also pointed to evidence that Mr Johnson inexplicably graded the gravel driveway in front of Mr Jarvis's home in the hours after the alleged ambush.

The Crown told the court this was an attempt to conceal the presence of blood and other biological matter.

Mr Gibson told the jury Mr Johnson's behaviour after a November 2022 police interview prior to his arrest implicated him in the crime.

The court heard Mr Johnson allegedly said, "If they find out I'm an ex-copper, I'm f***ed. I'm too old to go to jail". 

'Speculation and suspicion'

Defence lawyer Patrick Doyle SC told the court the prosecution's case was based on speculation.

"There's an inherent improbability in the Crown's case, and it involves layering one level of speculation on another,"

Mr Doyle said.

Mr Doyle said his client was attempting to use lawful means to resolve their rental dispute, including initiating the VCAT proceedings.

The defence also said there were a number of key issues with the prosecution's case, including unreliable and inconsistent witness evidence, an improbable timeline of events, and that Mr Johnson kept the starter pistol allegedly used in the assault for 16 years despite the claims he took other steps to allegedly cover his tracks.

He said the jury must find Mr Johnson not guilty if it has any doubt he committed the alleged crime. 

The jury will commence deliberations after Justice Andrew Tinney's charge to the jury on Monday.