Conspirator found guilty of Happy Cup cafe murder
A Sydney man has been found guilty of murder after a jury found he helped orchestrate and plan the Happy Cup cafe shooting of lawyer Ho Ledinh.
A Sydney man has been found guilty of orchestrating the infamous daylight execution of a criminal lawyer outside a busy Bankstown cafe.
A jury on Monday found Abraham Sinai guilty of murder over the brazen daylight shooting of Ho Ledinh in January, 2018.
Graphic CCTV footage played to the jury shown during the trial showed the moment hit man Arthur Kelekolio used a .45 calibre gun to deliver the volley of fatal shots into Mr Ledinh.
Mr Sinai had denied allegations that he orchestrated and organised the killing before helping Kelekolio make his getaway.
He pleaded not guilty to murder.
However a jury accepted the crown’s prosecution’s argument that Sinai was instrumental in organising and arranging the hit.
“The accused was in on the murder of Mr Ledinh,” crown prosecutor Sean Hughes told the jury.
The crown have alleged that Mr Ledinh was killed over a financial dispute involving a man named “Khai”.
The court heard that Mr Ledinh had claimed that Khai had owed money to one of his clients, Tri Nguyen.
Mr Hughes said that Sinai worked for Khai as a debt collector and enforcer.
During the trial, the crown said that two days after Mr Ledinh was shot, police pulled over three cars - one carrying Sinai and another two carrying Mr Sinai’s relatives.
In all, police seized $126,000 from the vehicles.
While only $6000 was found in Sinai’s vehicle, he was later overheard in police phone taps claiming ownership of the entire sum of $126,000, the crown argued.
CCTV showed Kelekolio - who has pleaded guilty to murder - running through the laneways and backstreets before he made his getaway in a grey Nissan van which was located at East Terrace, Bankstown car park.
The crown argued that Sinai was present in the van.
Ah Keni had previously given evidence before Justice Robert Hulme that Sinai was present in the getaway car.
However, when she came to give evidence before the jury, she changed her story and said Sinai was at work that day.
She claimed that she agreed to give Kelekolio a lift after he came across her car.
Sinai’s barrister Mark Tedeschi argued that Mr Ledinh was “heavily involved” in dealing drugs and may have had many enemies who wanted him dead.
“Who knows what Ho Ledinh was up to? Who knows what enemies he made,” he said.
However the jury accepted Mr Hughes’ argument that Sinai was “in on” the murder of Mr Ledinh.
Sinai will be sentenced at a later date.
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