Lawyers for two men charged with the premeditated murder of David Clarke called for a jury to find them not guilty, saying the prosecution’s case was weak and vague.

Jahkeo LeShore, 32, and Darrion Simons, 21, have both denied the fatal shooting of Mr Clarke, 26, who was gunned down near the junction of North Shore Road and Bandroom Lane on the evening of April 17, 2011.

Summarising the case against the men, prosecutor Susan Mulligan called the killing an “execution”, saying the killers had laid in wait for the victim to ride pass on his way home.

She alleged the defendants left the Mid Atlantic Boat Club together on a single motorcycle, which had been ridden to the club by 42 gang member Christopher Paris. They were then alerted by Mr Paris when Mr Clarke was preparing to leave.

Ms Mulligan said the pair pulled out of a side road as Mr Clarke passed, pulled up alongside the victim and opened fire. They then sped up Mission Lane to Crane Lane where they abandoned the bike and climbed over a wall while running to Mr Simons’ home.

She argued that both Mr Simons and Mr LeShore had motive due to both their association with the 42 gang and the murder of Mr LeShore’s brother, Jahmiko, six weeks earlier. Ms Mulligan said that Mr Clarke was not associated with any gang, but argued both defendants would have known his brother was associated with the rival Parkside gang.

Ms Mulligan challenged the defendant’s testimony that they had left the club separately, particularly Mr Simons claim that he was given a ride by a man named Johnny.

“Mr Simons is facing a murder charge,” she said. “He told you he has had several trial dates. If there was actually a Johnny, what does your common sense tell you? He would have tried to find this Johnny. He did nothing according to his evidence. Mr Simons’s evidence defies all common sense on so many issues and he’s had all this time to think.”

She also noted that Mr Simons’s house keys were found behind a wall that a witness said she saw two men scale down shortly after the shooting.

Ms Mulligan meanwhile said Mr LeShore was linked to the offence by his DNA, which was found on the abandoned motorcycle, and a series of BlackBerry messages in which she said Mr LeShore had said the only thing that would make him feel better would be “killing one or two of them personally”.

Lawyer Larry Mussenden, representing Mr Simons, told the court that the Crown’s case was “vague, weak and unreliable” and there was absolutely no evidence to prove Mr Simons was not at home at the time of the shooting.

“There’s no evidence whatsoever that places Mr Simons at the scene. No evidence,” he said.

“There’s nothing from the scene that links it to Darrion Simons. There’s no evidence that Darrion Simons is linked to the bike found at Crane Lane. No evidence whatsoever.”

Regarding the set of Mr Simons’s house keys, he said his client had offered a reasonable explanation — that he had lost the keys a week or two earlier and that he and others would sit on the wall near where they were found.

And he said the witness who saw two men climb over the wall never identified Mr Simons as one of the men despite knowing him.

Mr Mussenden said CCTV footage from Mid Atlantic Boat Club was of limited use, saying that it would be “pure speculation” that the defendants got on a bike together or left at any specific time, adding: “You can’t say that any bike that left was the bike the shooters were on or that any bike was the one found at Crane Lane.”

And he maintained that while Mr Simons lived in the St Monica’s Road area and was friends with his neighbours, it did not make him a gang member or one of the killers.

Defence lawyer Charles Richardson, representing Mr LeShore, acknowledged his client’s DNA was found on the bike found on Crane Lane, but argued it was not the bike used in the shooting, noting that an eye witness specifically said another type of motorcycle had been used.

And while the bike was not in the property before 9pm, he argued it was likely left there hours after prosecutors alleged. He said when the bike was found at around 3am, it had no dew or debris on the seat, and police had looked in the yard at around midnight.

“If that bike was there, police would have stopped then and there and taken notice,” he said. “They wanted to say ‘That’s the bike because it’s got Jahkeo LeShore’s DNA on it,’ but that bike had nothing to do with this offence.”

He questioned the Crown’s timeline of events, saying his client had been on the phone at his mother’s house at 10.44pm on the evening of the shooting when, under the Crown’s version of events, Mr LeShore would have been at Mr Simons’s home.

While Mr LeShore hung out in the St Monica’s Road area with people from the area, Mr Richardson said he did not view himself as a gang member, adding: “He hasn’t lied about his connection with 42. He just disagreed with the label people try to give him and the neighbourhood.”

Mr Richardson said Mr LeShore felt understandable anger following the murder of his brother, but had not acted on it, and said there was no evidence before the court to prove he believed Parkside was responsible for the murder.

He also suggested there was another potential suspect, saying another man had been convicted of a murder using the same firearm used to kill Mr Clarke and had been charged in another case involving a vehicle matching the description given by witnesses in this case.

The trial continues.

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