SMILES AS DEALER CLEARED OF MURDER

A VIOLENT drug dealer described by police as one of Australia's most
dangerous criminals smiled yesterday after beating his third murder
charge in four years.

Anton Lukacevic, who once savagely bashed a four-year-old girl with an
axe handle, was found not guilty in the Supreme Court of the murder of
fellow drug dealer Jimmy Foster.

The jury took less than 45 minutes to reach its verdict believed to be
one of the shortest ever deliberations in a Victorian murder trial.

The allegation against Lukacevic is that he carried out three murders
in 20 months and police are furious he has walked away from them all.

He is now serving a sentence for lesser crimes and will be free in
less than four years.

In October 1997 Lukacevic was found not guilty after a re-trial in
Perth of the murder of heroin addict Damien Harding.

And in 1998 a charge of murdering Melbourne heroin dealer Bob Kasal
was dropped against Lukacevic.

Lukacevic, 34, is now serving a prison term for robbing Mr Kasal and
assisting Mr Kasal's killer.

As the jury was being brought back to deliver its verdict yesterday,
Lukacevic had the calm expression of a man who had been through the
same waiting game on many occasions.

When the foreman said "not guilty" Lukacevic smiled at his solicitor
and later they hugged and shared a joke. He had beaten the system again.

The Crown case rested on the evidence of Mr Foster's wife, Gloria
Foster, who told the trial Lukacevic confessed the details of the
killing then coerced her to have sex with him.

The case again raised the issue of whether juries should be told the
criminal history of an accused where it may point to a pattern of
violent behavior.

In criminal trials any prior convictions of an accused are almost
always kept secret, but it has become an issue in several high-profile
cases around Australia.

The jury did not know Lukacevic had a long criminal history and had
been charged with two other murders, both carried out against drug
associates, and remarkably similar to the killing of Foster.

Defence barrister John Smallwood told the jury in his summing up Mrs
Foster was a liar and suggested strongly she blamed his client when
"she felt the noose tightening around her own neck".

Mrs Foster denied during her evidence that she played any part in her
husband's death.

Lukacevic did not give evidence in his defence.

Prosecutor Julian Leckie said in his opening that Lukacevic drove Mrs
Foster to a park and told her the details of the killing and warned
her she was an accessory.

Mr Leckie said Lukacevic took Mrs Foster home and because she was
frightened she had sex with him. Lukacevic then booked her and her two
children in to a motel and gave her a block of heroin.

Mr Leckie said the accused and Foster, 45, traded in drugs and the
Crown case was that Foster was murdered for his share in heroin they
stole valued at more than $50,000.