‘Got him good’: Words after alleged murder of Taha Sabbagh

A court has heard a man accused of assisting in the shooting murder of a man outside a Sydney gym what he allegedly said after his arrest.

A man accused of conducting surveillance and staging cars before an alleged shooting murder was recorded saying his “boys got him good”, but a jury has heard they may have “got the wrong bloke”.

Le Nghia “Andy” Pham is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court, accused of a role in the assassination of Taha Sabbagh outside a Sydney gym last year.

Mr Pham, 27, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with murder under a “joint criminal enterprise” – with the Crown alleging he was part of a plot to kill alongside two unidentified people.

Taha Sabbagh was killed on March 2, 2023.

Andy Pham is on trial for murder.

The jury on Thursday heard Mr Sabbagh, 40, had arrived at gym on Carlingford St, Sefton with a young child about 6:30am on March 2, 2023 and was waiting outside for a personal trainer.

He was still inside his car when a masked man emerged from a Mazda CX3 parked across the street and fired up to 10 times at Mr Sabbagh.

Crown prosecutor Christopher Taylor told the jury that after Mr Pham’s arrest, he was captured on a police surveillance device saying he “knows who did it”.

Mr Taylor said Mr Pham uttered words to the effect of “he knows his boys got him good” and later “agreed it was two of his boys”.

Mr Taylor told the jury police had not established a motive and suggested Mr Sabbagh may have been the victim of mistaken identity.

The court heard Mr Pham had been recorded driving a silver Volkswagen Golf, that was allegedly later used as a second getaway car, twice in the days before the shooting.

He parked it on Magdella St, Birrong, on February 24, 2023 and was recorded on CCTV ordering an Uber from the scene.

On February 28 – two days before Mr Sabbagh’s murder – Mr Pham’s black Subaru Impreza was allegedly recorded entering Carlingford St in Sefton about 6am before parking across the road from the Elite Fight Force Gym.

Mr Sabbagh arrived half an hour later and stayed in his black Mercedes AMG while a child went inside the gym to train.

“The Crown contends it’s open to conclude the accused was conducting surveillance of the gym and a black Mercedes and the driver of the black Mercedes,” Mr Taylor said.

Mr Sabbagh died outside a Sydney gym. Picture: Instagram

Mr Pham has pleaded not guilty.

The court heard it was not in dispute that Mr Pham was driving his sister’s BMW when he dropped off the shooter and another man involved in Mr Sabbagh’s death in Auburn on the day of the shooting.

He then drove to an underground carpark on Macauley Ave, Bankstown, arriving about 5.39am, and “lay in wait” while his co-accused carried out the shooting, Mr Taylor told the jury.

During that time, the court heard, the unidentified co-accused drove to the Elite Fight Force Gym in a silver Mazda CX3, shot Mr Sabbagh and then set it on fire near the Volkswagen Golf parked in Birrong.

That Volkswagen was captured entering the Bankstown carpark before Mr Pham drove his sister’s BMW out at 6.57am, carrying the two men who were involved in the shooting.

Mr Pham later smashed his phone, threw it in a lake in Lansvale and booked a flight to Vietnam, the court heard.

He was arrested after being stopped by Border Force officers trying to board that flight on April 23, 2023.

Taha Sabbagh was killed outside a Sydney gym. Photo Jeremy Piper

Mr Pham’s barrister Madeleine Avenell SC told the jury her client did not deny driving the Volkswagen Golf or “driving the shooter and person with the shooter both before and after in his sister’s silver BMW”.

Nor did he deny receiving money soon after Mr Sabbagh’s murder, she said, that he had destroyed his phone or had planned to leave Australia.

“But importantly what is in dispute is that Mr Pham participated or was involved in any kind of agreement to murder someone,” she said.

“It is in dispute that he did (those actions) pursuant to any kind of agreement to murder someone.

“When you hear the evidence you should be thinking ‘what was in Mr Pham’s mind when he did that’.”

Ms Avenell urged the jury to consider “what did he know” and “what was his reason for doing that? What was his purpose?”

The trial continues before Justice Belinda Rigg.