Jury hung in trial exploring dark chapter of Sydney's criminal history

A jury has been unable to reach a verdict for a second time in the Bilal Hamze murder trial.

The man accused of killing gangster Hamze in the Sydney CBD five years ago, Samuel John Rokomaqisa, now faces the prospect of a rare third murder trial in the Supreme Court.

Rokomaqisa was facing trial as either the gunman who took out Hamze or the getaway driver fleeing with the hitman from the scene on June 17, 2021.

Hamze died in a hail of bullets after his killer fired on him from a car as he left Kid Kyoto restaurant near Bridge Street with a sex worker.

Graphic CCTV footage played to the jury showed the gunman shoot Hamze, circle back and fire again before pulling up a third time to the curb near his lifeless body.

On Friday, after deliberating for 11 days, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the charge of murder and were discharged.

However, Rokomaqisa was found guilty over a failed attempt to kill Hamze's brother Ibrahem Hamze at North Sydney months later in November 2021.

Deadly chapter comes to a close

The three-month trial explored one of the deadliest chapters in Sydney's criminal history.

Hamze's death was one of seven in 18 months of violence at the height of the Alameddine crime family's war with the Hamzys.

The two gangs had been locked in a feud over control of Sydney's drug trade at the time.

Police had deployed rarely used non-association powers, dubbed Serious Crime Prevention Orders, to calm the bloodshed between the two clans.

But Hamze would be followed to the grave by relatives Salim Hamze, Toufik Hamze and Ghassan Amoun during a wave of violence that plagued the city.

Hamze, the cousin of notorious SuperMax prisoner Bassam Hamzy, was targeted due to his standing in the family's crime network headed by the former Brothers 4 Life boss.

Rokomaqisa's case is the fifth stemming from the seven gangland assassinations attributed to the Hamzy-Alameddine war.

In his first trial last year the jury deliberated for four weeks before being unable to reach a verdict.

Key witness quizzed for days over underworld associations

The sex worker seen with Hamze that night, who cannot legally be named, spent days being quizzed by Rokomaqisa's defence barrister over her links to Hamze's enemies.

Hamze's dinner date would tell the jury hundreds of times that she could not remember key details of what led up to her meal with the married underworld figure.

In opening their case to the jury Rokomaqisa's defence team argued: "[The woman] may have been used by others to get to Bilal Hamze that evening."

"How did the shooters know exactly where Bilal Hamze was going to be at 10:20pm on 17 June 2021?"

defence barrister Nicole Carroll said.

Ms Carroll laid out how the Hamzy crime network was also at war with Sydney's Haouchar family and the Comanchero bikie gang at the time, not just the Alameddines.

Rokomaqisa's barrister had zeroed in on her partying with Lone Wolf bikie gang boss Eric 'The Wolf' Keskin and Comanchero sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed.

The jury were read messages showing the woman was requested for a threesome with Tarek Zahed and his wife before Mr Hamze was killed.

Mr Zahed is not accused of having any involvement in Bilal Hamze's murder.

"You know who Tarek Zahed is though, don't you?" defence barrister Ms Carroll asked.

"No," the woman replied.

"Are you telling the truth?" Ms Carroll asked.

"Yes," the woman answered.

In closing Rokomaqisa's defence, his lawyers told the jury the woman either "knowingly or unwittingly" led Hamze to his killers through other violent underworld figures she knew.

Gang associations and a jailhouse boast

Crown prosecutor Kate Ratcliffe outlined how Rokomaqisa was allegedly a member of the KVT, a street gang of Fijian-Australians used by the Alameddine family as muscle.

The jury heard while in custody Rokomaqisa joked on a call that his name was "Samu Alameddine" and boasted of his involvement in the hit on Hamze.

In opening the Crown case, Ms Ratcliffe said Rokomaqisa committed the murder to gain the trust of the Alameddine family and to "demonstrate his loyalty".

Evidence obtained by police and presented to the jury detailed how Rokomaqisa allegedly told an associate he and his cousin "did the job", referring to the Bilal Hamze murder.

In one series of surveillance device recordings, Rokomaqisa could allegedly be heard laughing and mimicking gunshot noises as news of another Hamzy being shot was played on a TV.

The jury also heard other covert recordings from inside the home of Alameddine crime family boss Masood Zakaria as senior members game-planned a strategy in the war against the Hamzy's.

The failed hit

Rokomaqisa was also on trial for, and found guilty of, a failed attempt to kill Bilal Hamze's younger brother Ibrahem months after the gangster's death.

That attempt on Ibrahem Hamze's life was only thwarted when Highway Patrol officers spotted his would-be killers stopped in a no-parking zone near his North Sydney home.

That murder plot was botched after Rokomaqisa and another hired assassin then blew a tyre fleeing from police before car-jacking an elderly man at gunpoint in their getaway.

CCTV footage played to the jury showed how Ibrahem Hamze missed the killers in the same car with cloned number plates weeks prior.

The vision depicted Hamze exiting an elevator to the apartment block's underground car park just seconds before the vehicle failed to breach its entry gates.

Rokomaqisa will remain in custody to await sentencing later this year.