A man who fired a gun while robbing two Wagga customers during a roadside drug deal will spend more time in jail after assaulting a fellow prisoner.
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Ahmad El-Hajjar, aged 28 and formerly of Ambarvale in Sydney, was already serving a sentence of at least six years and six months for firing a handgun at two Wagga men while attempting to steal $3000 in 2017.
El-Hajjar pleaded had pleaded guilty to one count of wound with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after stabbing another prisoner 20 times in the maximum security section of Silverwater Correctional Complex.
The NSW District Court heard that El-Hajjar joined with a 25-year-old prisoner to stab a 37-year-old prisoner multiple times in the neck, shoulder and back while he sat by himself in a common area between cells in October 2019.
The attack lasted about 30 seconds and left the victim with wounds that required stitches under local anesthetic.
El-Hajjar's was sentenced to a non-parole period of three years and four months after a District Court hearing last month considered his "extensive criminal history" including an armed robbery outside Wagga in 2017.
Wagga District Court hearings in 2018 were told that El-Hajjar fired multiple shots from a handgun at the two prospective buyers and pressing the gun against one of their necks after they met for a drug deal.
El-Hajjar and two co-offenders traveled to a Sturt Highway roadside rest stop at Borambola in the early hours of November 21, 2017 to meet the Wagga men.
The victims brought $3000 in cash with them to purchase the methamphetamine or 'ice' as previously arranged.
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While counting out the cash in the back seat of El-Hajjar's Nissan Pulsar, one of the Wagga men noticed that he had a concealed firearm.
El-Hajjar fired three shots at one of the men after he grabbed the cash and fled the vehicle.
El-Hajjar then grabbed a second victim and pressed the firearm against his neck, saying words to the effect of "don't you remember who I am - you owe me money".
The group including El-Hajjar fled the scene by car drove towards Gundagai, with the victims following in a high speed chase.
At some point the two cars came into contact, causing the vehicle El-Hajjar was a passenger in to lose control as the car passed the Borambola Sports and Recreation Centre.
El-Hajjar was arrested when police responded to the car crash at 2:20am.
El-Hajjar was ultimately charged with four offences; armed robbery, firing a gun in public, using an offensive weapon to intimidate, and possessing an unathorised pistol and was sentenced at Wagga District Court in 2018 to a maximum of nine years and six months jail.
District Court Judge Phillip Mahony last week handed down his sentence for the Silverwater matter in 2019 and stated that a "clear messaged must be sent" as a "general deterrence" of prisoners committing violence against other prisoners.
"The courts will not tolerate prisoners in custody taking the law into their own hands," his Honour stated.
"Specific deterrence is also important here, in that the offender, who has spent the last five years in custody, must understand that he will be subject to increasingly long terms of imprisonment if he continues to offend."
After a 25 per cent discount for an early plea of guilty, El-Hajjar was sentenced to a maximum of four and a half years imprisonment for the jail assault, be served consecutively with the jail term from the Borambola incident.
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