‘Get in first’: How alleged ‘old-fashioned’ Sydney street fight turned fatal shooting
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A man accused of shooting his opponent in a Sydney street fight over hiring the victim’s wife to work at his inner-west brothel planned to “get in first” and kill him, a court has heard.
Ayman Manly, 42, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court charged with murder over the fatal shooting of Mohammad Chami on March 3, 2022.
Ayman Manly has pleaded not guilty to murder.James Brickwood
Manly has also been charged with shooting with intent to murder and discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm over the wounding of a second person, known as Witness 1.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
During closing submissions, Crown prosecutor Eric Balodis SC told the jury Chami arranged the meeting after discovering Manly had employed his wife and began a relationship with her. The court heard the woman denied the pair had a sexual relationship.
Chami had a turbulent relationship with the woman, the court was told, marked by domestic violence, infidelity and drug use. The pair split in 2021 after Chami assaulted her and she stabbed him. Chami was jailed over an unrelated incident days later.
It’s alleged the woman fled to a friend at Manly’s brothel in Newtown, Mistiques. Manly offered her a place to stay at his Balmain property, and she began working as a receptionist at the venue, where she had previously been employed.
When Chami was released from prison, he learnt of the arrangement and messaged Manly to set up a fist fight, the court heard.
“You should have never got her a place to stay … from the second you new [sic] she was my wife,” Chami wrote on March 2, the day before the alleged shooting. “Now straight up we have to have a crack one on one, and then I’ll leave at that.”
Manly then called his own wife to tell her about the meetup. “Some f---ing gronk calls me up, wants to fight me,” he said in a phone call played to the court.
Chami didn’t show up to the first meeting, with the pair arranging to meet at a semi-industrial cul-de-sac on Fox Street in the suburb of Holroyd the next day.
Friends of Chami told the court he believed it would be a fist fight, and that he had left a knife behind before leaving for the meeting.
“He said that he was going to go for an old-fashioned bashing,” one woman told the court. She added that she warned Chami “everyone knows that you bring guns to fights”, but Chami insisted it would only be a punch-up.
It’s alleged that just before midnight, Chami arrived on Fox Street with Witness 1. Dressed in socks and slides, Manly emerged from a pedestrian underpass near the Western Motorway with a taller, unidentified man.
The pair began a heated exchange, the court heard, before Chami stepped back and raised his arm to punch Manly.
Manly shot him five times in the back and buttocks, Balodis said. “Manly has taken the opportunity to get in first with Chami and kill him,” he said.
Witness 1 was allegedly shot in the backside as he turned to flee. Chami’s body was found hours later by a passerby.
With minimal DNA evidence, the prosecution relied on mobile phone tracking placing Manly at the scene, Witness 1’s testimony, and ballistics trajectory analysis matching the shooter’s height with Manly.
“The accused is a short fella. He did it, he’s guilty,” Balodis said.
Defence barrister David Dalton, whose closing argument begins on Wednesday, maintains Manly was not involved.
“He wasn’t there. He didn’t shoot anyone,” Dalton told the jury earlier in the trial.
The jury is expected to retire to deliberate on Thursday.
with AAP
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Amber Schultz is a crime and justice reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.