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Adrian Daou was working as a dishwasher and drug dealer when he hatched a murder plot in the summer of 2010 with the hopes that killer status would launch his dream career as a hip hop star, court heard Tuesday.

“He believed that murder would open up that world. He thought murder would reach his goal,” prosecutor Louise Tansey told a hushed courtroom at Daou’s first-degree murder trial.

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The prosecutor detailed the accused’s murder plot for stardom that left Jennifer Stewart, 36, axed to death in a darkened parking lot on Alice Street in Vanier on Aug. 20, 2010.

Earlier that summer, Daou, 25, went on what the prosecutor called a shopping trip for murder at Canadian Tire, where he bought an axe, protective eye gear, mask and gloves.

But it would be two more months before he found “the perfect score” for his killing plot, the prosecutor told the jury.

And his perfect target was Stewart, a drug-addicted sex-trade worker, the court heard.