WA bikie boss to spend 34 years behind bars for speedway killing

Perth bikie boss David Pye will spend at least the next 34 years in prison after he was sentenced for ordering a hit on friend-turned-underworld rival Nick Martin at Kwinana Motorplex in 2020.

The former Comanchero, now a Mongol, appeared in the Supreme Court of WA on Wednesday to be sentenced by Justice Joseph McGrath almost six years after Martin’s death sent shockwaves through the community.

Martin was shot as he watched the drag races with his family and friends, sparking a widespread manhunt and feverish speculation about who fired the lethal shot.

A major police investigation led to the arrest of Waikiki FIFO worker and former army reservist Benjamin Johnston. It didn’t take long for him to reveal he had been paid to carry out the killing by Martin’s rival, Pye.

In return, he wanted a light sentence, which he got when he was jailed for 20 years for setting up his rifle over 300 metres away from Martin and firing a bullet that went straight through the bikie heavyweight and into the arm of his daughter’s partner, who was sitting behind him.

Martin died soon after and, during Pye’s sensational trial, Johnston – whose identity was kept a secret until a suppression order was lifted this year – told the court how he was paid $100,000 to carry out the kill.

“What was it all for? An apparent grudge between the offender and Mr Martin.”

Justice Joseph McGrath

Johnston also told the court that he thought he had done a “community service” by taking out the bikie.

Pye denied any involvement in the killing and maintained his innocence, but on Wednesday he learned he would be spending the next 34 years behind bars after McGrath sentenced him to life in prison with the hefty non-parole period.

During Wednesday’s sentencing – which was heavily guarded, with armed police officers stationed outside the court building – prosecutors described Pye’s actions as “calculated and premeditated”.

“The transactional nature of this killing sets it apart from other offending of this type,” Justin Whalley SC said.

“It is a contract killing where the offender has put a price on life and [Pye] has repeatedly demonstrated his belief that people he doesn’t like can simply be disposed of by making a cash payment.”

Whalley said Martin was loved by his family and his friends, who had written victim impact statements to the court detailing how his death had affected them.

“[Pye had] a chilling disregard of the sanctity of life,” Whalley said.

“What was it all for? An apparent grudge between the offender and Mr Martin.”

McGrath told the bikie he had animosity towards Martin “at the level of hatred” because of his feelings towards the rival Rebels bikie gang, of which Martin was president.

“I find that you have no remorse whatsoever for your offending,” McGrath said.

“You continue to maintain you were not involved [and] I find it difficult to find you have any prospects of rehabilitation considering your commitment to outlaw motorcycle gangs”.

McGrath said Pye had been convicted of “the most heinous type of murder – the contract killing of another person”, and the bikie and Johnston were both “equally criminally responsible for the killing of Mr Martin”.

Pye was also sentenced to eight years in prison for inciting Johnston to murder an ex-girlfriend while she was in witness protection because she had made complaints about him to police, and seven years for injuring Martin’s son-in-law Ricky Chapman when bullet also grazed him at the speedway.

He got another 10 years for inciting Johnston to murder exiled bikie Ray Cilli who was living in Thailand and a further 16 years for two money charges in relation to paying Johnston for both Martin and Cilli’s deaths.

Those sentences, however, will run concurrently to the 34 years he will serve for ordering Martin’s death and are all backdated to reflect the time he has spent in custody since November 2021.

Pye will be 73 years old before he is eligible for parole.