Victim was bleeding profusely from his neck, friend tells court

KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here was yesterday told that a part-time security officer of the Siam Thai Bar had allegedly slashed a college student who had tried to grab the sword from him.

Star witness Raymond Wong Sang Ming, 18, testified before Justice Datuk Nurchaya Hj Arshad that he saw the assailant, whom he identified as the accused Mohd Azmin Lidin, 29, had intended to slash Yaacob Nasran during the alleged incident.

Yaacob, 18, was allegedly killed by Mohd Azmin outside the bar around 4am to 4.30am on December 15, 2016.

Under examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Gan Peng Kun, the 14th prosecution witness, who was also one of the victim’s friends who spent time with him at the bar, said that during the alleged attack, the accused had headed towards an area which was described as “the bush” not far from the bar. Thereat, the victim was seen to be jumping whereby the accused seemed to taking aim at the victim’s legs.

However, the witness said he could not recall nor identify the weapon used but what he remembered was the sword which was about one foot and a half foot long.

Further in recalling the incident, the witness had diverted his attention to one of their female friends known as Nana, who had shouted for help, prompting him to go over to her beside a car used by the victim which was parked near the bar.

The witness said that when he went to Nana, he saw his other buddy known as Nabil on the ground, bleeding and breathing heavily.

“Nana later asked me to check on Yaacob. So when I stood up and went to Yaacob’s place, and saw the latter standing and looking at one of the signboards.

“I went to Yaacob as I thought Yaacob was sweating, so I insisted that Yaacob should sit by a flower box not far from the car and helped him down,” recalled the witness.

He further testified that he only realised later thatYaacob was not sweating but bleeding.

The witness said that he had checked on Yaacob to see which part of his body was bleeding and most of Yaacob’s blood was coming out from his neck.

“Yaacob then started to shake violently but he also had a chance to say ‘take care’ but in a weak voice and then just continued shaking,” the witness said.

To a question by Gan, the witness explained that upon seeing Yaacob like that, he then grabbed Yaacob’s legs and asked him if he was OK, but by then Yaacob could not reply and had stopped shaking.

To another question by Gan, the witness said he then went to the toilet to wash his hands and face, where he later heard an ambulance coming and directed the ambulance personnel to Yaacob.

“I remembered seeing the personnel checking on Yaacob’s breath or pulse and then the personnel looked at me and said “ini kes polis sudah” (This is a police’s case now).

“So after that I directed the personnel to Nabil who was already in the car,” said the witness.

To another question by Gan, the witness said that he did not know where the accused went after slashing Yaacob.

Gan asked: Did you see from where the accused took out the sword?

Witness: I do not remember seeing him taking out the sword, all I can remember is the accused was slashing Yaacob towards the bush.

Before the incident happened, the witness said that he and his friends, including Yaacob, still wanted to spend time together after spending time at the city area, but at that time around 2am most of the bars were closed, so they decided to spend time at the bar, which was still operating.

“We were at the bar until the music was stopped and the lights were turned off and one of the workers directed us to go out from the bar.

“We then decided to have a smoke at one of the flower boxes near the bar as the others were coming out. At that time I remembered seeing a girl and two men shouting at her,” said the witness.

Gan asked: Then what happened?

Witness: I remember someone in our group saying somebody had hit the girl and as I looked towards the girl and two men, my friends decided to calm down the situation and Nabil had said to them “chill bro”. Gan: Then what happened? Witness: Then one of the men, a tall guy said “Jangan masuk campur” (please don’t get involved), so we were a bit scared and we went a bit further away from them.

The witness also said that as they were walking near the bar’s entrance, he remembered that one of the men behind them had challenged and threatened them.

He said the men were heading towards them, and added that they turned to face the men in self defence.

The witness also said that a commotion broke out between them and one of the men went to hit Nana.

The accused, who faces the mandatory death sentence under Section 302 of the Penal Code, was represented by counsel Dato’ Rakhbir Singh.

Counsel Mary Gomez held a watching brief for the deceased’s family.

The trial, which ended at about 5pm, will resume today.