Abraham Sinai: Wife of alleged Happy Cup Cafe murder mastermind changes story
The wife of the man alleged to have orchestrated the Happy Cup Cafe murder has gone back on crucial evidence, a court has heard.
The accused mastermind of the daylight execution of a lawyer outside a western Sydney cafe should be acquitted after his wife recanted on a key claim, his lawyer has told a court.
Abraham Sinai is standing trial for murder in the NSW Supreme Court where he has denied any involvement in the slaying of Ho Ledinh, who was shot three times as he sipped tea with a friend at Bankstown’s Happy Cup Cafe in January 2018.
It is not in dispute that gunman Arthur Kelekolio used a .45 calibre gun to deliver the volley of fatal shots into Mr Ledinh, however Mr Sinai has pleaded not guilty to orchestrating the brazen and bloody shooting.
During closing arguments on Tuesday, Mr Sinai’s barrister Mark Tedeschi told the jury the crown had failed to prove its case because they could not place his client inside the grey Nissan van used as a getaway car.
In earlier evidence before Justice Robert Hulme, Mr Sinai’s wife, Analosa Ah Keni, had said Mr Sinai was present in the Nissan Elgrand.
However, when she came to give evidence before the jury, she contradicted that claim by saying only she and Mr Sinai’s sister were in the Nissan and agreed to give Kelekolio a lift after he came across their vehicle.
Mr Tedeschi told the jury that when Ah Keni had allowed Kelekolio to get into the vehicle, she had no idea that moments earlier he had gunned down Mr Ledinh.
CCTV played to the jury showed Kelekolio – who has pleaded guilty to murder – shooting Mr Ledinh on a busy shopping strip before escaping through backstreets and laneways.
The prosecution had alleged that Mr Sinai, along with his wife and his sister, had met up with Kelekolio inside the grey Nissan van at a car park at East Terrace, Bankstown.
Ah Keni was forced to deny she had deliberately lied when she gave evidence that Mr Sinai was not present during the getaway.
“I didn’t mean to tell a lie,” the court heard that she had said during her testimony.
“Everything going on the last few weeks, I was so stressed out with everything.
“That day when they asked me, I wasn’t on my mindset.”
Ah Keni went on to tell the jury that she was “scared” when she found out what Kelekolio had done, and two days later fled Australia to New Zealand.
Mr Tedeschi said Ah Keni had admitted to wanting to flee police and the justice system.
Asked what she was worried about, she said: “Trouble that I got myself into, that I didn’t know anything about.”
Mr Tedeschi argued that Ah Keni had initially lied about Mr Sinai’s presence in the car in an attempt to protect herself.
He argued that by claiming he was there that day, she had mitigated her own role in the incident.
“The incentive is there to minimise her own role and transfer it onto Abraham,” Mr Tedeschi said.
The court heard that Mr Sinai and Kelekolio knew each other through work.
Mr Tedeschi said Kelekolio had visited Mr Sinai’s house and that’s how he knew his wife.
He went on to argue that it explained why he came to ask her for a lift when he happened across her car in the parking lot.
The crown has alleged Mr Ledinh was killed over a financial dispute involving a man named “Khai”.
The court has previously heard Mr Ledinh had claimed Khai owed money to one of his clients, Tri Nguyen.
The prosecution has claimed Mr Sinai worked for Khai as a debt collector and enforcer, and had organised Mr Ledinh’s execution on his behalf.
The jury is expected to retire on Wednesday to consider its verdict.
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