Mr Johnson has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Jarvis, who was 38 when he vanished on June 13, 2006. The trial, heard in Warrnambool over 21 days, has heard competing accounts from the Crown and the defence.
Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson KC told the jury that Mr Johnson orchestrated a violent attack on Mr Jarvis in his driveway over $2,210 in unpaid rent. The prosecution alleged that Mr Johnson fired a starter pistol in Mr Jarvis's ear, causing bleeding, before bundling him into his car, driving to Framlingham Forest, striking him with a baseball bat, and burying him in a shallow grave. Mr Jarvis's car was then allegedly torched at Thunder Point, a coastal lookout near Warrnambool.
The Crown presented circumstantial evidence including that Mr Jarvis disappeared the day before the pair were due at a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing over the tenancy dispute. "It was no coincidence that [Mr Jarvis] went missing the day before that court case," Mr Gibson told the jury.
Prosecutors also pointed to evidence that Mr Johnson graded the gravel driveway outside Mr Jarvis's home hours after the alleged ambush, said to be an attempt to conceal blood and biological matter.
But Mr Johnson's legal team argued he wanted to resolve the dispute lawfully and was not involved in the disappearance. They told the court he had no part in the events alleged by the Crown.
Mr Jarvis's body has never been found. The jury will now consider the evidence before returning a verdict.