A pizza delivery driver charged over his involvement in a fatal crash has had his case dramatically thrown out.
Ashley Brian Quadros, 20, was accused of deliberately taking his hands off the wheel before a crash that killed two of his friends, Mark Bogoni, 17, and Tom Saffioti, 15, in September 2021.
There were four companions in the car with Mr. Quadros, including his Domino’s Armadale colleague Benjamin Jack Davis and Max Roso, as they delivered pizzas in Seville Grove, Western Australia.
The State claimed the car veered left onto Lake Road before hitting a curb and then a tree because Mr Quadros had ‘skewed around’, but their two key witnesses provided no evidence to support their claims.
Defense barrister Seamus Rafferty successfully argued there was no case to answer and it collapsed halfway through.
Ashley Brian Quadros (pictured), 20, was accused of deliberately taking his hands off the wheel before a crash that killed two of his friends, Mark Bogoni, 17, and Tom Saffioti, 15, in September 2021, but the case against him collapsed d. the first day of the trial
On the first day of District Court on Monday, Mr Roso, 20, who was in the front passenger seat of the car, initially claimed Mr Quadros let go of the wheel before eventually admitting he was unsure where the defendants’ hands were. .
Rafferty said his client ‘completely and completely’ denied taking his hands off the wheel at any time.
He told the court Mr Quadros blamed the crash on a flat right rear tire after police investigators found a screw embedded in it and said he oversteered to compensate.
WA Police major car crash investigator Neil Aitken also went against his initial expert assessment and accepted Mr Quadros’ explanation of how the crash happened was reasonable.
Sir. Aitken changed his mind after receiving a report from a forensic accident consultant who admitted the tires on the company-owned Lancer were under-inflated.
He then said that the car would have driven to the right if Mr Quadros had taken his hands off the wheel, not to the left.
Outside court, the elder brother of Mr Bogoni (pictured) was visibly upset, saying he was shocked and that his hopes of a guilty verdict had slipped away “in the first half hour of day one”
Tom Saffioti, 15, was killed in the September 2021 crash
Sir. Quadros’ barrister then filed a “no case to answer” application using Section 108 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2004, which gives a judge the power to excuse a jury from reaching its verdict on the charge.
Judge Gary Massey ruled there was no case to answer on Wednesday morning, saying Mr Roso had given compelling evidence and the jury had no reason to disregard expert evidence.
He said Mr Rafferty had seized on the way the State had specified its case and the prosecution was “bound in the way” it did it.
Acknowledging the families of the deceased felt understandably let down, Massey said he could only offer sympathy.
Outside court, the elder brother of Mr Bogoni was visibly upset, saying he was shocked and that his hopes of a guilty verdict had slipped away ‘in the first half hour of day one’.
“Obviously not the result we wanted today,” Mr Bogoni said The West Australian.
‘We feel let down. Mark and Tom were both beautiful boys and we love them and we miss them.
‘And we pray that all young people drive safely and responsibly on the road because we never want what happened to our families to ever happen to another family again.’
Saffioti’s mother also struggled to process the ‘very disappointing’ outcome and said she will continue to seek justice for her son.
The trial had been set for five days.