Passing motorists were told slain western Sydney man Ross Houllis had too much to drink or was on drugs when they stopped to check on him in a suburban street.
Ross Houllis, 28, was bashed on Valentine’s Day 2020 and died in hospital three days later.
Abdul Karaali has pleaded not guilty to murder, denying involvement in the attack preceding Houllis’ death.
A woman who called Triple Zero said the two men she saw involved in an attack on a third did not participate equally.
“One of them was kind of standing back a bit and one was doing more kicking,” she said.
She could not distinguish between the men but after being shown her original statement she said the man with the “bigger build” did more.
A man driving past the scene at Wakeley in Sydney’s west with his wife told the court he stopped to ask if Houllis was OK after seeing him lying in the street.
He said a man came up to the driver’s side window of their Toyota Tarago and told him they were “looking after” Houllis.
“They said he was on drugs and ‘we’re looking after him’ and ‘you can go’,” the man told the court on Thursday.
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His wife recalled hearing from the passenger seat Houllis was “drunk, had too much to drink”.
CCTV shown to the court during Karaali’s trial captures a man being bashed, stomped on and dragged by two other men.
Karaali’s barrister Irving Wallach has told the jury his client does not appear on the footage and the “poor quality images” taken from a number of CCTV cameras would not convince them beyond reasonable doubt that he does.
“The prosecution’s evidence on its whole is of poor quality,” Wallach said on Wednesday.
The Crown alleges Houllis was set up as “revenge” for selling a fake pair of Apple AirPods to another man who brought Karaali in on the plan.
The trial is set to resume next week.
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