A JESMOND man has admitted to concealing the murder of Anthony Nugent after he brought a shortened shotgun to a unit at Hamilton South on the night it was allegedly used to gun down the well-known petty crook over a fake firearm scam.
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Bradley Charles Billiet, 42, was represented by solicitor Cameron Duncan when he appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday via audio visual link from a remote location and pleaded guilty to concealing a serious indictable offence and giving a shortened firearm to another person.
Billiet was at home at Jesmond on the night of September 5, 2022 when a number of men came over and said they had been "ripped off... and sold a gel blaster" during what was supposed to be the purchase of a legitimate handgun outside Charlestown pool earlier that night.
The next day Billiet drove two of the men to Raymond Terrace, where they collected a shortened double barrel shotgun.
He then let the men store the firearm in his bedroom for the day, putting the gun and ammunition in a storage container under his bed.
During the day, Billiet heard the men trying to track down the person who had arranged the firearm sale the night before, according to an agreed statement of facts.
And between 10pm and 10.40pm on September 6 he was directed to take the shortened shotgun and ammunition to a unit in Fowler Street, Hamilton South.
A short time later four other men arrived at the Fowler Street unit, loaded the firearm and one of them put on gloves and stuffed the gun down his pants.
The men left the unit and a short time later there was a loud bang.
Nugent had answered the front door of a neighbouring unit in Fowler Street and been shot in the chest at close range, police say.
The group left in two cars and headed back to Jesmond, with Billiet driving one of the alleged killers back to his unit.
Billiet only found out the next day that someone had been shot and killed with the shotgun, according to an agreed statement of facts.
In October, 2022, he fled interstate and it was not until June, 2023, when police applied for a warrant for his arrest that he was picked up and brought back to NSW to face the charges.
According to court documents, Billiet knew as early as September 6, 2022, the night Mr Nugent was gunned down, who had committed the murder but failed to bring that information to police.
He also admitted to providing the shortened firearm used in the murder on the same day Mr Nugent was killed.
Billiet remains on bail and will next appear in Newcastle District Court next month to get a sentence date.
The Newcastle Herald reported in April that Mr Nugent had been gunned down 24 hours after supplying a gel blaster, a life-like toy gun, to a group of men in the car park of Charlestown swimming pool.
Those details emerged in court documents for another man, an associate of Mr Nugent who had pleaded guilty to helping facilitate the firearm sale.
It was between 8pm and 9pm on September 5, 2022 when Mr Nugent and the other group met, the 57-year-old handed over a hard plastic case in exchange for $15,000 and the buyer immediately got in his car and left.
Several hours later, after Mr Nugent had returned home and given an associate his cut of the cash, those who had been so desperate to purchase the gun realised that it was a fake.
"This led to a dispute between the parties," according to an agreed statement of facts filed in the case of Mr Nugent's associate.
It was about 11pm the next day - September 6 - when Mr Nugent answered the front door of the unit and was shot in the chest at close range with a shotgun.
He died at the scene while his partner desperately called triple-zero.
Detectives allege Mr Raad was the shooter, but all three men travelled to Fowler Street before Mr Nugent was gunned down.
The trio have not entered pleas, remain behind bars and will next appear in court in July.
The documents tendered in the case of Mr Nugent's associate outline the last few days of the 57-year-old's life, when he was apparently broke and cooking up various "schemes" to come up with some cash.
One of those that crystallized was to sell a firearm and Mr Nugent's associate was reminded of a man he had run into at Community Corrections who had said he knew someone who wanted to buy a gun.
Over the next few days, Mr Nugent's associate and the man had a text exchange where they discussed facilitating the sale of the gun for $15,000 or $18,000 if Mr Nugent was prepared to drive the gun to Sydney and deliver it.
Mr Nugent's associate also sent the man images of a black pistol, which turned out to be the gel blaster, which had been sent to him by Mr Nugent.
"My mate's ready to go, is this 100 [per cent] for 6-7 tonight," the man asked Mr Nugent's associate.
The next night the two groups met in the car park outside Charlestown pool and the case containing the gel blaster was exchanged for $15,000.
The two men who set up the firearm sale took their respective cuts and the men went their separate ways.
The next night Mr Nugent was dead and police were hunting for his killers.
