A jury has begun deliberating at the trial of a man accused of being involved in the brazen murder of a Sydney solicitor gunned down at a shopping centre cafe.
Abraham Sinai, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ho Ledinh, who was shot dead in broad daylight at the Happy Cup Cafe at Bankstown City Plaza on January 23, 2018.
A man called Arthur Keleklio used a .45 calibre handgun to shoot the 65-year-old criminal lawyer three times as he sat outside with friends.
Prosecutor Sean Hughes contends Sinai is guilty of murder because he was part of an arrangement for the solicitor to be killed in that way.
"The accused was in on the murder of Mr Ledinh before, during and after, he played a role."
The NSW Supreme Court jurors retired at midday on Thursday, after Justice Robert Allan Hulme summed up the case and gave them legal directions.
He told the jury that a critical issue for them was whether Sinai was in a Nissan Elgrand, with his wife and sister, when the gunman got into the van after the shooting and was driven away.
And if so, whether this was part of an arrangement made before the shooting to wait for Keleklio on East Terrace to drive him away rather than just happening to be there when he wanted a lift.
Mr Hughes argued he was in the vehicle, attacking the credibility of Sinai's wife Analosa Ah Keni and his sister Keziah Knowles.
His wife testified she had been "confused" when she told an earlier hearing her husband was in the car and in fact he was not, while Ms Knowles said only she and her sister-in-law were in the Nissan.
But Sinai's lawyer Mark Tedeschi QC said "fallacies" in the crown case, included the contention that Sinai took his wife and sister along for the ride knowing he was picking up a murderer..
Nobody in their right mind would take them along "on a venture like that if they knew murder was going to happen".
He also wouldn't have let the women out of the car to go shopping in a St Vinnies store if he was waiting to pick up a murderer.
But Mr Hughes said he wasn't suggesting "this was some sophisticated, well planned murder", telling the jurors they might think it was done with some incompetence.
"I have never suggested, and do not suggest, that the murder of Ho Ledinh was the work of a criminal brains trust."
Mr Tedeschi submitted there was no satisfactory explanation why his client would have been involved in murdering the solicitor.
He alleged Mr Ledinh was "heavily involved in the drug trade" and may have made serious enemies.
"Who knows what Ho Ledinh was up to? Who knows what enemies he made," he said.
"Certainly he was heavily involved in that (drug) trade, and money laundering, and was a heavy gambler ... we don't know what flows from that."
Australian Associated Press
