‘No, no’: Murder denial
’Asian Johnny’ rejects defence accusation as ‘bulls--t’
A PRAWN farmer known as ‘Asian Johnny’ denied he killed Newcomb teenager Ricky Balcombe during a grilling from accused murderer Karl Hague’s QC in court on Monday.
“No, no. I can’t believe I’m hearing this,” Phong Tan Huynh told the Melbourne Supreme Court under crossexamination at the cold case murder trial.
Mr Huynh was called to give evidence about his encounter with a man at the entry to Geelong’s Market Square shopping centre in the moments after Balcombe was fa- tally stabbed on May 5, 1995.
The theory that the boy, 16, was stabbed in a botched ‘gang hit’ by Asian Johnny or on his orders has been pursued at the trial with a number of witnesses by Mr Hague’s defence counsel, Felicity Gerry, QC.
On Monday she put her questions to the man himself, asking Mr Huynh, 42, whether he was part of a plan to “cut not kill” Ricky Balcombe, or his friends Nick Munn or Paul Bellia, all of whom were in a Geelong street gang called The Main Stream/Street Criminals.
“If a witness were to describe you holding a knife up high and stabbing Ricky Balcombe in the back, would that be correct?,” Ms Gerry asked him.
“That’s bulls--t,” the witness responded. The lawyer also quizzed the man about a long list of criminal convictions for drugs and violence offences committed in his name since the fatal stabbing, but Mr Huynh said it was a case of mistaken identity. He said he did not commit — nor face court — for most of the crimes that were detailed.
Mr Huynh said his confrontation with a man wielding a bloody knife happened moments before he saw Ricky Balcombe dying inside the shopping centre.
He said he was in the Little Malop St mall with his friend Tolga Savas when Mr Bellia ran from the corridor leading to the Market Square lifts yelling “He’s got a knife”.
The witness said his memory of the events almost 23 years ago were poor, telling the jury he suffered a brain injury when assaulted with a machete by a love rival in November 1995.
But helped by a statement made to police six days after the murder, Mr Huynh recalled walking towards the shopping centre doorway after Mr Bellia’s dramatic exit.
He said he had just entered the building when “I saw a person come towards me ... He had a sharp object or knife in his hands”.
Mr Phong said the man appeared nervous, so he told him to “drop it”, and the person threw the knife, underarm, at him. “It come flying toward me, and hit me on the thigh,” he said. According to the witness, the man then ran past him into the mall, and left towards Yarra St. Later, he said he found a blood stain on his jeans and handed them in to police for examination.
The jury heard evidence from five other witnesses on Monday, including statements from people in Market Square when the stabbing happened but no longer alive. The trial continues.