Confirmed hate crime of white “Good Samaritan” still suppressed in media.
The millionaire US lottery winner accused of shooting dead Australian property developer Greg McNicol warned, ”Watch your mouth,” before firing the fatal bullet, a Detroit court has heard.
The evidence was part of chilling testimony presented at a hearing for 62-year-old Freddie Young on Thursday.
Young was part of a syndicate in Michigan that shared $US46 million ($A43 million) in a jackpot lottery in February, but the court was told he was upset at the way Mr McNicol, formerly of Mount Eliza, had treated his daughter Ayana Young.
Ayana, 20, was living in an apartment complex in Detroit that Mr McNicol bought earlier in the year, but she was two months behind on rent and was threatened with eviction.
Tenants testified Mr McNicol, on May 7, the day of his death, became involved in a heated argument at the complex with a group of women, including Young’s granddaughter. The granddaughter phoned Young, the court heard.
The Detroit News reported that after the phone call the granddaughter allegedly told other members of the group her grandfather was going to come and ”kill the dude”.
Witness Mayakala Bell-Brown, 14, testified Ayana arrived at the complex, punched Mr McNicol in the face and said: ”I’m tired of you white people.”
Freddie Young then pulled up in a black vehicle, had a gun in his hand and confronted the Australian, the court heard.
”The man said, ‘Watch your mouth’. Greg said he wanted them ‘out of my house’,” another tenant, Leola Brown, said, according to the newspaper. ”Then he shot him.”
Freddie Young was ordered to stand trial for first-degree premeditated murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.