A jury found Nazlioglu not guilty of Mr Hawi’s murder in September 2020,after his barrister told a court there were “a lot of people” who had motives to kill Mr Hawi.
During the investigation,detectives bugged a rental car which picked up Nazlioglu saying to two other men:“see that,is that a cracker or what brother”. One of the men responded,“look at the gun you got”.
In another recording,Nazlioglu discussed storing the gun in a car park and letting it “sit there for a while”. Police later discovered a loaded revolver – which is not related to Mr Hawi’s death – in an air duct at the car park of The Toaster apartments in central Sydney,where Nazlioglu lived in a unit costing $1350 a week.
On Thursday,NSW District Court Judge Tanya Smith said the revolver was in full working order,loaded with five rounds of ammunition,and had a serial number which had been “obliterated”.
Nazlioglu was not allowed to possess a gun because he was the subject of a Firearm Prohibition Order. He pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm,and asked for the offences of possessing an unregistered firearm and not keeping a firearm safety to be taken into account when he was sentenced.
Judge Smith said Nazlioglu had been “bragging about the gun” to the other two men in the covert police clip and the case against him was strong,including his DNA being found on parts of the pistol.
Nazlioglu told a psychologist he had the gun for his protection,didn’t have it for very long,and was tossing up if he should keep it or not.