Murder charge dropped

AN alleged Lone Wolf bikie has been cleared of killing exbikie Shane Ross and his Monstr Clothing business partner Cameron Martin.

Magistrate John Mcinnes told the Southport Magistrates Court on Friday there was not enough evidence for Garry Brush to stand trial.

Brush was one of three men charged with the murder of Mr Ross, a former Comancheros bikie, and Mr Martin.

Brush appeared via videolink from prison and smiled when the charges were dropped.

“Unreal. Thank you so much,” he said.

Magistrate Mcinnes replied: “All part of the job, Mr Brush.”

His reasons for discharging Brush were not available at publication deadline.

Alleged Lone Wolf bikies Nathan Miller and Brodie Singh still face two murder charges each for the deaths of Mr Ross and Mr Martin.

Mr Ross and Mr Martin were shot dead near Martin Shiels Park in Tallebudgera in 2019.

Mr Martin was found in his vehicle about 9.30pm on Friday, October 18, 2019.

Three days later, the body of 36-year-old Shane Ross was discovered in bushland on the corner of the Pacific Highway and Tallebudgera Creek Rd.

It is alleged the murders of Mr Ross and Mr Martin were “undertaken and planned” by Singh and Miller “over a period of time”.

The court was told on Friday that the case against Singh and Miller relied on the fact that two cipher phones had been linked to the pair in the days before the murder.

A cipher phone is one that has software that prevents phone calls and only allows the sending of encrypted texts and emails.

The cipher phone allegedly linked to Singh was called the “red phone” while the phone allegedly linked to Miller was dubbed the “green phone”.

It is alleged the red and green phones were in the area the day Mr Ross and Mr Martin were murdered.

Singh’s barrister Saul Holt, instructed by Dib & Associates, said: “The case against Mr Singh is worse than the one against Mr Brush.”

Mr Holt described the case against Singh as “tenuous”.

He said police could link the phone to Singh two days before the murder but there was no evidence linking Singh to the phone the day of the murder.

Mr Holt said the only thing that linked Singh to the phone was that it had often pinged off a tower in Currumbin where Singh lived, and it had also pinged another mobile phone tower near where Singh had been caught on CCTV days before the murder.

Crown prosecutor Stephanie Gallagher said Singh could be linked to the phone two days before the murder when Miller and Singh were at a Caltex in Banora Point.

She said the phone being given to someone else the day before the murders was “not a rational inference”.

“That phone does not activate on the towers after the murder,” she said.

Miller’s defence barrister Alastair Mcdougall, instructed by Jason Grant Lawyers, said the case with Miller was similar in that he could not be linked to the green phone on the day of the murder.

“The personal phone of Mr Miller’s doesn’t ping anywhere near the murder scene,” he said.

“The closest it gets is 21km away at Banora Point.”

Magistrate Mcinnes said he would need time to consider the evidence and adjourned the matters to March 18.