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The mother of a convicted gun for hire used artificial intelligence to help craft a letter to the court asking for her son to be shown leniency in his sentencing over the killing of Gavin “Capable” Preston.
Alongside co-offender Rabii Zahabe, 26, Jaedon Tito, 25, arrived at the Supreme Court of Victoria a smiling assassin on Friday, grinning at the waiting media as he was led into the building by specialist security.
There, his mother Levi Tito was waiting to read a character reference detailing her son’s love of rugby and willingness to help people, two months after he was found guilty of executing Preston – a man he’d never met.
“An empty space is now at every birthday, every Christmas, every family gathering and every ordinary day in between,” she said. “We long for the day he can come home to us.”
Tito’s mother, a retail worker, told the court she never imagined having to write a letter to a court, telling the judge she had used ChatGPT to help her make “sense” of her words.
“My greatest joy [was] watching him play rugby league. Countless hours were spent driving him to training.”
She said Tito was one of six children, and described her son as a man who exhibited a kind and caring nature to friends, family and strangers.
“Respect for others, particularly elders, is something we tried to teach all our children, but for Jaeden it seemed to come naturally. Always … willing to help those around him,” she said.
She also revealed her son had taken up colouring while in jail to help “clear his mind”, with his two-year-old daughter visiting him there.
“As his mother, the reality of what has happened has brought a level of heartbreak and sorrow that is difficult to put into words,” she said.
Crown prosecutor Kristie Churchill, KC, called for Zahabe and Tito to be jailed for life, labelling the crime a sophisticated murder that was extensively planned.
This, she said, included the pair waiting in a vehicle at the Keilor Hotel car park for three hours before shooting Preston dead outside a popular local cafe on a Saturday morning, and attempting to kill his breakfast partner Abbas “AJ” Maghnie.
The pair then fled back to their homes in NSW in a string of strategically placed, neutral-coloured getaway cars, Churchill said.
“This was a planned execution of a known underworld figure in a public place … It was offending that was in company, involving the use of firearms by offenders who were heavily disguised.”
Defence barrister Paul Smallwood said his client, Zahabe, had experienced challenging conditions while in custody, including being held in protection where he experienced only two hours a week of time outside his cell to attend the prison’s gym.
Smallwood said his client maintained his innocence and denied organising, or being part of, the offending.
He accepted Zahabe was on parole, bail and subject to a firearm prohibition order when the killing occurred, telling the court the 26-year-old at one time played rugby league for the Canterbury Bulldogs before later breaking his leg and turning to cocaine and prescription medication.
Tito’s barrister, Daniel Sala, noted the crime appeared to have been planned by others and, in pointing to his client’s young age, said a sentence in the range of the “30s” was more appropriate than life behind bars.
“Life is a dreadful sentence and should be considered with caution,” he said.
Justice Michael O’Connell said the level of sophistication involved was “quite extraordinary”, pointing to all substantial number of getaway cars left in place that got the men back to NSW within a matter of hours.
During the trial earlier this year, the jury were told that Preston purportedly had a $5 million contract on his head after trying to steal the interred body of an underworld rival’s sister, and spent the final months of his life allegedly seeking retribution for old friends while making new enemies.
The defence had argued a swath of Preston’s potential enemies could have been responsible, with the list including feuds with significant crime figures Sam “the Punisher” Abdulrahim, George Marrogi and Waleed Hadarra, and potentially Kazem “Kaz” Hamad.
A jury ultimately found both Tito and Zahabe guilty of the murder of Preston and the attempted murder of Maghnie, who was also shot, but survived.
Both killers will be sentenced at a later date.
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