{"id":7614,"date":"2026-05-08T16:32:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7614\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:32:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:32:49","slug":"jaeden-tito-and-rabii-zahabe-found-guilty-of-murdering-underworld-figure-gavin-preston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7614\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaeden Tito and Rabii Zahabe found guilty of murdering underworld figure Gavin Preston"},"content":{"rendered":"

A jury has found two men guilty of shooting underworld figure Gavin Preston dead in a daylight assassination at a Melbourne cafe.<\/p>\n

Preston was waiting to eat breakfast at the Sweet Lulu’s cafe in Keilor when he was ambushed by two masked assailants on September 9, 2023.<\/p>\n

After two days of deliberations, a jury ruled that the killers were NSW men Jaeden Tito, 25, and Rabii Zahabe, 26.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The jury was told Rabii Zahabe and Jaeden Tito were hired as contract killers to kill Gavin Preston. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Tito and Zahabe face potential life sentences for Preston’s murder and the attempted murder of AJ Maghnie, who was also shot.<\/p>\n

The shocking crime took place out the front of the busy cafe on a sunny, Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Many cafe patrons ducked for cover and scrambled to safety when the shooters pulled up in a stolen car and opened fire.<\/p>\n

\"Crime<\/p>\n

Preston was shot dead outside a cafe in September 2023. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

Preston was hit seven times, including in the head, while his friend, AJ Maghnie, was shot in the abdomen but survived.<\/p>\n

The killers, who had never met their victims, were contract killers hired by an unknown enemy of Preston, the prosecution alleged.<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old was a hardened criminal with a lengthy rap sheet, and had only been released from prison in April 2023 after serving a sentence for defensive homicide.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police outside Sweet Lulu’s cafe in Keilor. (AAP: Joel Carrett)<\/p>\n

After his death, police received intelligence that Preston had many gangland rivals, who may have included bikies from the Comancheros, the Marrogi family, Sam Abdulrahim and Kazem Hamad.<\/p>\n

According to the prosecution, the assassination plot involved multiple getaway cars being positioned in the suburbs near the cafe, which was known to be Preston’s favourite place to eat.<\/p>\n

The Crown alleged Tito and Zahabe pulled the trigger and others were involved in the broader plot \u2014 including driving a lookout vehicle and disposing of a murder weapon.<\/p>\n

DNA belonging to Tito and Zahabe was found in getaway cars and on clothing found inside, including two black balaclavas and a glove.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A court sketch of Jaeden Tito and Rabii Zahabe. (Artist: Anita Lester)<\/p>\n

Police found evidence Zahabe had looked up Islamic passages about seeking forgiveness, searched for “no extradition countries”, and had a picture of Preston on his phone.<\/p>\n

Videos and pictures of Tito also emerged in the days after the shooting which showed him sporting a bandage on his arm. Prosecutors alleged that injury was caused when he set one of the getaway cars on fire.<\/p>\n

Tito also messaged an associate, describing himself as “Rabz coey”. Prosecutors said the message was Tito outing himself as a co-offender of Rahabe.<\/p>\n

The men pleaded not guilty at the trial, with their lawyers arguing none of the evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that they were the shooters.<\/p>\n

Neither chose to testify in court, but their legal teams told the jury they may have been involved in moving cars as part of the broader plot.<\/p>\n

The pair, who were arrested about a month after the shooting, will be sentenced at a later date.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police are continuing to investigate who ordered Preston’s death, a homicide detective told the trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A jury has found two men guilty of shooting underworld figure Gavin Preston dead in a daylight assassination…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[196,8963,260,849,1559,8961,8962,8960,8283],"class_list":{"0":"post-7614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-melbourne","8":"tag-gavin-preston","9":"tag-jury","10":"tag-melbourne","11":"tag-organised-crime","12":"tag-shooting","13":"tag-supreme-court","14":"tag-trial","15":"tag-underworld","16":"tag-verdict"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}