As Shahidy Saliba sat watching TV in her Sydney loungeroom just after midnight one morning in April 2020, she heard a strange noise.
At first, she thought it could be a possum. But as the sounds continued, she woke up her husband, Kalim Saliba, who was sleeping on a chair next to her in the downstairs room. The elderly couple soon realised someone was attempting to break the glass of their upstairs front door.
Kalim Saliba and wife Shahidy, who was injured in the attack.Credit: Nine News
Within hours, 86-year-old Kalim Saliba was dead, allegedly at the hands of family members.
Crown prosecutor Eric Balodis described the alleged events of April 29, 2020, in his opening address in a NSW Supreme Court trial of two men – Tony Phillip Tadrosse and Danny Stephen – for the alleged murder of Kalim, as well as assaulting Shahidy with an attempt to rob while armed.
The court heard Tadrosse was the Salibas’ nephew and Stephen was also an extended family member.
Balodis told the jury that upon hearing the noises, the couple went outside via their garage in the northern Sydney suburb of Cherrybrook and returned to find a masked man standing at the top of the stairs.
The man allegedly demanded money, and when Kalim said he had none, the man hit him in the head with a weapon, causing him to collapse.
The Sydney grandfather was 86 when he died.
Balodis told the jury they will hear Kalim was struck several times, leaving him with a raft of injuries including a fractured skull and bruised brain. The man then asked Shahidy for the money, and allegedly hit her when she said they had none, causing her to lose consciousness.
After she woke up, she ran out to the street to seek help from neighbours, who came to her aid and called emergency services. The couple were taken to hospital, where Kalim died a short time later.
The court heard that inside the house, police found open wardrobes, a glove imprint on a door and a shoebox that had been moved.
Balodis alleged Tadrosse and Stephen had “entered into an agreement” – potentially involving a third person – to rob the couple of money or other valuables while being armed with weapons.
Two men are facing trial over Kalim Saliba’s death, charged with murder.Credit: NSW Police
“And one could see how that might work with a couple that were in bed upstairs in their house,” Balodis said.
“But of course, this couple was downstairs in their living room. The confrontation occurred downstairs while two of them were coming back from outside.”
Balodis suggested the alleged offenders must have “contemplated… that one or more of the occupants might be intentionally killed or intentionally caused serious bodily injury”.
“It is through that chain of reasoning that we say that each of these two accused are guilty of murder and guilty of the second offence.”
The jury were told the accused men struggled financially at the time and were motivated by money after hearing “within the family circle” that the victims had cash at home. They could expect to hear evidence that the Salibas ran their family business with “an old-fashioned attitude” in which they did not use electronic banking but kept their income in their house.
Balodis said one family member will testify about “an association she had with Danny Stephen, as a relative, for a number of years, during the course of which she would have been taking money to and from Mr and Mrs Saliba’s house”.
Saliba was attacked inside his home in Sydney’s northwest.
Evidence throughout the trial will include CCTV vision of Tadrosse and Stephen allegedly driving near the house before the incident, phone call records, neighbour accounts and CCTV audio which recorded “a series of voices and screams… then there is silence,” Balodis said.
Delivering his opening address, Stephen’s barrister Karl Prince said his client did not kill Kalim, injure Shahidy or take part in an agreement as the Crown alleged.
He said it was not in dispute that one or more people broke into the couple’s house and assaulted them.
“The main dispute in this trial is the identification of the person or persons who broke into the Salibas’ house just after midnight on the 29th of April 2020,” he said.
“Mr Stephen denies that he broke into the house or that he played any role in it”.
Meanwhile, Tadrosse’s defence lawyer, Madeleine Avenell, SC, said she would argue the relevant CCTV footage and phone records did not prove her client’s involvement in the crimes.
She told the jury that throughout the trial she would “analyse the evidence in much more detail to be able to suggest to you that your ultimate verdicts will be ones that are not guilty”.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues, with evidence to begin Tuesday.
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