A Sydney solicitor gunned down at a shopping centre cafe might have made serious enemies from being "heavily involved in the drug trade," a defence barrister has told a jury.
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Mark Tedeschi QC put forward the submission as he contended there was no satisfactory explanation why his client Abraham Sinai would have been involved in murdering Ho Ledinh.
"Who knows what Ho Ledinh was up to? Who knows what enemies he made," he said.
"Certainly he was heavily involved in that (drug) trade, and money laundering, and was a heavy gambler ... we don't know what flows from that."
Sinai, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 65-year-old criminal solicitor, who was shot dead in broad daylight at the Happy Cup Cafe at Bankstown City Plaza on January 23, 2018.
The NSW Supreme Court jury has been told that a man called Arthur Keleklio used a .45 calibre handgun to shoot Mr Ledinh three times as he sat outside with friends.
Prosecutor Sean Hughes contends Sinai is guilty of murder because he was part of an arrangement or agreement for the solicitor to be killed in that way.
He alleges that Sinai, his wife and his sister drove around in his Nissan Elgrand car, stopping infrequently, before the gunman got in the car after the shooting and was driven away.
Continuing his final address on Tuesday, Mr Tedeschi said the Crown had failed to call credible reliable evidence to prove Sinai was in the car - a scenario denied by the two women.
"No one has given evidence of having seen the accused in the van and he is not seen on any CCTV in or near the van," he said.
The crown case had revolved around a Mr Khai who was said to have owed a debt to the solicitor and said to have engaged Sinai to be involved in the murder.
Mr Khai had not been called to give evidence, nor had he been charged over the murder, Mr Tedeschi said.
Two days after the murder, three cars were pulled over and searched by police at Goulburn.
They found $6000 cash in Sinai's car, $50,000 in another one and $70,000 in the third.
Mr Hughes has submitted the jury may well think the $126,000 was for Sinai's participation in the murder.
But Mr Tedeschi said this was "pure speculation" and only $6000 was attributed to his client.
Mr Hughes said while there was evidence Mr Ledinh had engaged in "unwise and perhaps criminal activities", he was not on trial.
"The accused was in on the murder of Mr Ledinh before, during and after, he played a role," he said.
Justice Robert Allan Hulme is expected to address the jurors before they retire on Wednesday.
Australian Associated Press
