Mildura man ‘Sandy’ MacRae gets life for murder

Originally published October 26, 1989

A SUPREME Court judge sentenced a 40-year-old man to life imprisonment for the 1985 murder of Mildura green grocer Domenic Marafiote.

The judge also called for an urgent review of criminal legislation to allow the trials of serial killers, whose crimes crossed state borders, to be heard in one state.

He said drug-related killing of Marafiote by Alistair Farquhar MacRae was cold-blooded and motivated by profit and greed.

Justice O’Bryan said he could not ignore evidence that MacRae also murdered Marafioti’s parents in Adelaide within hours of killing Marafioti.

He had not yet faced murder charges in South Australia, the judge said.

MacRae, a fruit grower of Merbein, showed no emotion in the dock as the judge told him he must serve a minimum non-parole term of 18 years.

The jury was told MacRae killed Marafioti at his property on July 18, 1985, to try to get money for a bogus marijuana deal.

It was alleged that Marafioti went to MacRae’s property expecting to collect marijuana from MacRae, a deal to be funded by Marafioti’s parents, who lived in Adelaide.

But the prosecution said MacRae had no marijuana to sell and murdered Marafioti to try to get the money.

MacRae’s defacto wife Judith Suzanne Ip, gave evidence that MacRae forced her to help carry the body to a pre-dug grave in a chicken coop.

The judge said MacRae mutilated the dead body with a knife after shooting Marafioti in the back of the head with a revolver.

Marafioti’s body was not found until more than two years after his murder.

After the killing, MacRae drove to Adelaide where he cold-bloodedly executed Marafioti’s parents within a few hours of their son’s death.

The judge said the jury had accepted the evidence of Mrs Ip, who told the jury that she witnessed MacRae murder Carmello and Rosa Marafiote in Adelaide — also shooting both of them in the back of the head with the same revolver.