Prosecutor Ben Ihle, QC, told the jury it had to be satisfied there were two offenders, and that if so, Roberts was one of them. Ihle argued the evidence presented a logical and compelling picture that Roberts was with Debs, and there was an understanding between the pair that they would “shoot their way out of trouble”.

Debs gave evidence and said he shot Miller first and heard Roberts shoot Silk. But prosecutors argue it was likely Roberts who shot Silk first, then Debs shot Miller in a shootout.

“The accused himself was strongly motivated to ensure that neither he nor Debs were caught by the police,” Ihle told the jury in his closing address.

“They were working together, and by his actions, he was telling his teammate, his brother-in-arms, his co-offender, that they should shoot their way out of trouble, even if it meant killing someone or causing them really serious injury.”

Ihle said it was “fanciful” to suggest Debs alone shot two officers standing on different sides of the Hyundai in the dark, and pointed to evidence that showed Miller fired in two directions, and that later, while critically injured, he spoke of two offenders to other police.

The trial heard several of the police witnesses acknowledged what they said they heard Miller say wasn’t recorded in written notes or statements taken afterwards.

Ihle acknowledged the way investigating police backdated secondary statements was inappropriate but that didn’t change what the witnesses heard Miller say.

“The evidence in this trial is what the witnesses tell you they saw, what they tell you they did, what they tell you they heard,” the prosecutor said.

“The evidence is not what was heard in documentary form 20 years ago. It’s what we have today.”

But defence counsel David Hallowes, SC, said that “the stench of police misconduct” hovered over the case and infected all the “dying declaration” evidence. He told jurors that prosecutors wanted them to speculate and “draw conclusions that can’t properly be drawn”.

Hallowes said two officers who drove past the intercepted Hyundai before the shootings saw only one person with Silk and Miller. It was possible, Hallowes said, Debs alone shot the pair with two guns.

The defence barrister urged the jury to reject Debs’ evidence because of his habitual lying and said the killer made a deal with police to give evidence in an attempt to be moved from a NSW prison to a Victorian jail to be closer to family.

“Lying is like breathing for Bandali Debs,” Hallowes said during his closing address.

Hallowes said Roberts lied to investigating police in the years after the shootings to conceal his involvement in the hold-ups and to protect Debs.

Roberts was “no angel” as a 17-year-old and did the armed robberies with Debs, his barrister said, but that didn’t mean he was a murderer.

“What happened at Cochranes Road ... was a tragedy,” Hallowes said.

“It was a vile and evil act. But it was committed by Bandali Debs, a vile and evil person, a psychopath and a liar. And he’s properly serving time for those murders.

“Jason Roberts, though, was not there. It’s time to right the wrong.”

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