A man who beat another man to death over a pair of fake AirPods sold on Facebook Marketplace is set to spend at least the next 21 years behind bars.
29-year-old Abdul Karaali was one of two men who murdered Ross Houllis in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley on February 14.
Karaali was recruited by Sami Hamdach after the latter believed that Houllis had sold him some counterfeit Apple AirPods over the online marketplace site.
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So, the pair punched, kicked, and stamped on him, leaving him with a ‘catastrophic’ brain injury that caused him to die three days later in hospital.
The New South Wales Supreme Court jury found Karaali guilty of murder and sentenced him to 28 years in total, with a minimum period of 21 years before parole.
Hamdach pleaded guilty to murder earlier this year and was sentenced to at least 12 years.
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On the day before the attack, Hamdach had bought the AirPods from Houllis, but after believing that they weren’t real ones, enlisted the help of Karaali to attack him for revenge.
Justice Stephen Campbell called Karaali ‘a willing recruit’, adding: “He had plenty of time to consider the ramifications of Hamdach’s plan and pull out.”
Despite Hamdach being the one who planned the attack, Karaali was the one who actually committed the murder, and was captured on CCTV kicking and punching Houllis as well as stamping on him.
“I am satisfied that those blows were delivered with the intent to kill Mr Houllis,” Justice Campbell continued.
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Karaali also stopped members of the public helping Houllis after seeing him lying on the road, as well as stopping him from escaping from the attack.
The judge said that he used ‘extreme physical violence’ to kill Houllis.
“It is no easy thing to kill another human being by punching, kicking and stomping,” said the judge.
“It requires a determination to go on with it. Mr Houllis must have been very afraid.”
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The reasoning for the attack – he said – was ‘trivial’ and ‘grossly disproportionate’ to the punishment that they handed out.
At sentencing last week, Houllis’ mother Janet Houllis said she didn’t like the fact that Karaali may one day be released ‘as if [her] son’s death was nothing but a mishap, a speed bump on his life’.
She said that her son’s life was taken ‘brutally and cruelly’, adding: “It seems to me (Karaali) did not care that he had taken another’s life over something that didn’t really have anything to do with him,
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“How can someone kill my son over AirPods and money?”
Karaali will first be eligible for parole in 2041.
Topics: Crime, Australia, Apple, Technology, Facebook
Tom Wood