Court told murder victim drank laced avocado smoothie in kill plot
A MURDER victim was allegedly knocked out with a laced avocado shake before cyanide was poured down his throat in a plot allegedly hatched by his wife and her lover.
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A MURDER victim was allegedly knocked out with a laced avocado shake before cyanide was poured down his throat.
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Sofia Sam, 33, and her alleged lover, Arun Kamalasanan, 35, are each accused of murdering Ms Sam’s husband, Sam Abraham, in a poison death plot in October 2015.
The Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday heard how Mr Kamalasanan allegedly sneaked into Ms Sam’s house in Epping on the night of the murder and slipped sleeping pills into Mr Abraham’s avocado smoothie.
Prosecutor Kerri Judd QC told the court Mr Kamalasanan later added potassium cyanide powder to orange juice and poured it down Mr Abraham’s throat as he slept.
She told the jury it was impossible for Ms Sam to have no knowledge of the poisoning, as she was asleep beside her husband with their son, 6.
“Even if she did not administer the poison herself, she must have known and been complicit in what was going on,” Ms Judd said.
Ms Sam and Mr Kamalasanan, who met in college in India, have denied the murder.
Patrick Tehan QC, for Mr Kamalasanan, told the jury: “Arun Kamalasanan is not guilty of murder. He did not kill Sam Abraham.
“He was not party to any agreement with Sofia Sam to kill Sam Abraham. No such agreement existed.”
Mr Abraham’s death was initially believed to have been caused by a heart attack.
But investigators began to follow Ms Sam and Mr Kamalasanan after they suspected foul play when a toxicology report showed high levels of cyanide in Mr Abraham’s system.
Ms Judd told the court the alleged lovers had opened a joint back account almost two years before Mr Abraham was allegedly killed.
Ms Sam made four bank transfers to India between July 2013 and February 2015, giving Mr Kamalasanan’s address as her own, Ms Judd said.
The jury also heard how five months after Mr Abraham’s death, Ms Sam transferred her late husband’s car into Mr Kamalasanan’s name.
Police allege the pair each had a separate mobile phone to make secret phone calls to each other; and a computer hard drive seized from Mr Kamalasanan contained photos of the two accused together.
Mr Kamalasanan’s housemate Aji Parameswaran gave evidence saying he came home early from work to find Ms Sam in the home in 2013.
He said Mr Kamalasanan later warned him not to say anything to his family, including his parents, wife and child, in India about Ms Sam, despite saying they were just friends.
Asked if in their culture an affair would be shameful to the family, Mr Parameswaran replied it would be “very bad”.
The trial, before Justice Paul Coghlan, continues.