adminIt was a fight between two small-time Sydney drug dealers over a paltry $500.
But Khaldoun Abbas’s decision to pull a gun in a “half-baked attempt at gangsterism” left his mate dead, denied his own baby girl of a father and plunged two families into grief, a NSW Supreme Court judge says.
Justice Robert Beech-Jones sentenced 21-year-old Abbas to a minimum eight years in jail yesterday for accidentally shooting his childhood friend during a bungled attempt to recover a drug debt on 6 August 2011. Abbas had pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
“The offender has embarked upon what appears to be a half-baked attempt at gangsterism,” Justice Beech-Jones said.
“It has left his good friend dead, a family devastated, him incarcerated and his daughter effectively fatherless.”
The court heard Abbas — then 18 — had enlisted the help of his teenage friend, who cannot be named, to confront drug addict and dealer Jui Wei Huang at a home in Rockdale.
Justice Beech-Jones described Abbas demanding the $500 and beating Huang around the face with a pouch containing a semi-automatic pistol. When Abbas drew the weapon and brandished it at Huang, he accidentally shot his friend — who had been holding down Huang’s
legs – in the face.
He claimed he didn’t know the gun was loaded.
What happened in the moments after the bullet lodged in his mate’s brain is disputed.
Abbas claims he cradled him in his arms; the Crown believes he fled, leaving the teenager behind.
At the time of the shooting, the court heard, the boy’s brothers and sisters were laying out a Ramadan feast and planning to celebrate a relative’s birthday. “Instead, the evening ended with the siblings assembling at St George Hospital with their brother on life support,” Justice Beech-Jones said.
The judge said he believed Abbas’s remorse was genuine and he had good prospects for rehabilitation. “Unlike his friend, he will have an opportunity to make a life for himself,” he said.
The 21-year-old slumped where he stood as the judge handed down a full sentence of 11 years in jail, with a non-parole period of eight. — AP
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