A 20-year-old psychology student has walked free from court despite pleading guilty to an aggravated burglary during which police allege a separate man murdered a young tradie.
On the night of July 18, 2020, four shots were fired inside a home in Lalor, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, with one of the bullets hitting Adrian Pacione in the head and killing him, police allege.
Tahmid Rahman, 20, was at the home that night along with three other men, all of whom sought to gain entry into the unit but were unable to, the Supreme Court of Victoria was told on Thursday in Rahman’s sentencing.
Rahman, who has pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated burglary, was sentenced to 212 days jail, a one-year community corrections order and 150 hours of unpaid community service.
But Rahman walked free on Thursday, having already served the jail sentence when he was placed in remand after being charged over the offence.
In sentencing Rahman, Justice Lex Lasry said Rahman had no part in the shooting that caused Mr Pacione’s death.
Justice Lasry said that one month before the burglary occurred and the fatal shots allegedly fired, a drug deal in Roxburgh Park led to two men being stabbed.
Rahman attended the Lalor premises on the evening in question with two of the men who had been stabbed and a third man in order to exact retribution, Justice Lasry said.
He said at about 10.40pm the gunshots were fired into the unit, with one hitting the 20-year-old Pacione, who was rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital but died.
The man police accuse of firing the shots is due to face a jury trial on charges of attempted armed robbery, aggravated burglary and murder in April.
Another co-accused has a court date scheduled for early April on the charge of aggravated burglary, and a third man was sentenced in February in relation to charges of attempted armed robbery and aggravated burglary.
Justice Lasry said since spending time in prison Mr Rahman, who was observed speaking to himself in the dock prior to the sentencing, had gone to considerable lengths to turn his life around.
Born in Australia to Bangladeshi parents, one of whom was a senior public servant, Rahman is now married to a woman he has known since high school and is in the first year of a psychology course.
Justice Lasry said nothing would be achieved by sending Rahman back to jail.
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