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UNDERWORLD figures Keith Faure and Evangelos Goussis have been found guilty of the shooting murder of criminal associate Lewis Caine, making them the first people to be convicted of a killing in Melbourne's eight-year gangland war, which has claimed 27 lives.

After a four-week trial in the Victorian Supreme Court, the jury of seven women and five men yesterday returned the guilty verdict after seven days of deliberations. Faure and Goussis stood expressionless in the dock as the verdict was read out.

The court had heard that after an evening of drinking in inner-city Carlton on May 8 last year, the trio left a pub in two cars, with Caine and Goussis in one and Faure following.

According to Faure's defence lawyer James Montgomery, Caine had tried to enlist Faure, 54, and Goussis, 38, in a plot to kill high-profile gangland identity Mario Condello.

But after the pair refused to join the murder plot, 39-year-old Caine, who allegedly was to be paid $50,000 to kill Condello, realised he had "to do something about it" because "it would be more than likely" that Faure would tell Condello of the planned hit.

Knowing Goussis was a bodyguard and was carrying a weapon, Caine chose to ride in the back of his car.

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"Take out the bodyguard first because he's the bloke with the gun, then you can shoot Faure. In that way your plan to kill Condello is still on foot because he won't be told about it by those two," Mr Montgomery said in his closing address.

While in the back seat, Caine allegedly pulled a gun on Goussis.

But Caine's gun jammed and Goussis claimed he shot him in self-defence, firing a single bullet in Caine's face. "That's the common-sense explanation of what's occurred," Mr Montgomery said.

But it was an explanation the jury did not accept.

According to Crown prosecutor David Parsons SC, Faure's and Goussis's guilt was exposed by "the big 11-day lie" they concocted in the aftermath of Caine's death.

The pair initially told police that they weren't there when Caine was killed, but later changed their version of events when they realised they had been under police surveillance.

They admitted Goussis had shot Caine and that they had dumped his body in a laneway in Brunswick, in the city's inner north.

Goussis, a member of Australia's boxing squad for the 1988 Olympics, later told police he was "in fear of my life" when he shot Caine, and that he had disposed of Caine's misfiring gun.

But Mr Parsons asked the jury to consider why Goussis would throw the weapon away when it was the only piece of evidence that could have shown he had acted in self-defence.

The reality, Mr Parsons said, was that Caine never had a gun.

The court heard that Faure, who had been tried previously for murder but not convicted, was the "brains trust" of the operation but that both men were equally responsible for the killing.

Outside the court, Mr Montgomery said Faure would appeal the verdict.

Goussis's lawyer, Remy van de Weil QC, described his client's reaction to the verdict as "devastation".

 
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