Dastan was found dead in a pool of blood at his Esy Auto Dismantlers business on Monday December 11, 1995 after being bludgeoned with a heavy object.
“The deceased was located in his workshop where he had been subjected to a severe attack to his head, face and body,” crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield said on Monday.
A metal pipe was found in Dastan’s mouth, a sledgehammer lay nearby and a bloodstained note with a partial footprint lay close to the body, the NSW Supreme Court jury heard.
Dastan’s employee Kubilay Kilincer was a suspect in the initial 1995 police murder investigation but was not charged until 2020 after detectives took over the unsolved homicide case two years earlier.
Kilincer was accused of murdering his Fairfield Heights employer but has pleaded not guilty.
On Monday, Hatfield said Kilincer frequently asked to borrow money from members of the Turkish community in Sydney.
“The deceased was aware of this and often would complain about it and tell people not to loan the accused money,” the barrister said.
These financial requests allegedly included $500 that was desperately and urgently needed for a friend and $1200 required to secure a housing commission home.
Kilincer was accused of stealing around $1000 paid by a customer picking up their Ford Laser hatchback at the Blacktown business a few days before the alleged murder.
With Dastan suspecting Kilincer had been pilfering money from his business, he was on the verge of firing him when the murder occurred, the jury was told.
The eight-week trial in front of Justice Helen Wilson continues.