MANDEL: Man denies killing neighbour over complaints about barbecue fumes
· Toronto Sun
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Sometimes remaining silent may be the better move.
Testifying in his own defence in a bold white linen suit, overly-confident software developer Khoa Tran insisted he didn’t kill his neighbour, filmmaker Reeyaz Habib, over their ongoing dispute about barbecue fumes wafting upstairs into the victim’s Liberty Village condo.
Habib, 53, lived in a condo unit above the couple’s townhouse at 26 Western Battery Rd. They initially had a good relationship, grabbing beers and talking on the shared stairs, but Tran said it deteriorated in 2023 over his charcoal barbecueing of ribs and brisket that Habib complained was permeating his home.
“What were you cooking – dog?” Tran recalled Habib asked following an argument on May 20, 2023.
He said Habib yelled at him and slammed his door – but they later talked it out and resolved the issue.
Neighbour ‘crossed the line’
But on June 1, 2023, he said Habib “crossed the line” in another argument: the neighbour accused Tran of trafficking the couple’s roommate, Linh Hua, who had arrived from Vietnam a month earlier. He also continued to complain about the horrible fumes causing him to shower three times a day even though Tran told him he’d stopped using the barbecue after their last confrontation 10 days earlier.
Tran admitted he was angry and offended. But did he have anything to do with his murder? “No,” Tran said calmly. “I did not.”
Tran, 36, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the June 2023 slaying. His wife, Quynh (Isabelle) Nguyen, 30, has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory after the fact and committing an indignity to a body.
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Habib’s decomposing remains were discovered by a garbage man on June 8, 2023 in the condo’s underground trash compactor. Two notes were found on the body that had been concealed in towels and blankets and secured by duct tape, warning it was very heavy and to be careful and not to open because it contained glass and sharp materials.
Two days earlier, Tran said he was working late, his wife and Hua had gone to sleep in the bedroom, and he’d dozed off in his chair when he was jolted awake about 3 a.m. to three screams for help coming from Habib’s unit, the sounds of a struggle and then of someone falling down the stairs. He said he checked on his wife – who waved at him – looked outside, didn’t see anything and tried to go back to work. “I thought OK, it must have been something else.”
His lawyer Liam O’Connor asked the obvious question: “Did you call 911?”
Accused didn’t call 911
“I didn’t call 911 although I really should have, thinking back I would have,” he said. “We hear noises like that all the time in the neighbourhood, lots of screaming outside.”
When Hua asked him about the sounds the next morning, he admitted telling her it was just Habib making a movie.
“Why did you tell her that?” his lawyer asked.
Tran said he and his wife had agreed on a plan before Hua’s arrival to tell her that so she wouldn’t be afraid if she heard anything.
Court has heard Habib was never seen alive again.
Stole bike and threw it in trash
Two days later, he admitted still being so angry at Habib that he stole his unlocked bicycle and threw it in the trash – something caught on video and shown in court. “It was incredibly stupid and juvenile,” he explained. “But I had nothing to do with his disappearance or what happened to him.”
After Habib’s body was found, Hua testified Tran told her not to talk to police. “I did do that,” he agreed. “I was afraid I’m going to be involved in this case.”
Under cross-examination by Crown attorney Anna Tenhouse, who expertly poked at his arrogance, Tran accused her of unfairly mischaracterizing and cherry picking his words. “I’m tongue-tied,” he complained. “I don’t know what to do.”
She continued the pressure, confronting him with his neighbour’s testimony who said she saw Tran coming out of Habib’s home on June 7, 2023 and locking the door. “That didn’t happen,” he told her.
Tenhouse played a video taken in their complex from June 8, 2023 at 6:19 a.m. of a man wearing an orange and white hat that had belonged to Habib and then taking if off and trying to cover his face as he passed the neighbour who said she saw Tran coming out of Habib’s home the previous day.
“That’s not me in the video,” Tran insisted.
The prosecutor then played a second video taken a few minutes later of Tran riding and then tossing Habib’s bike into the trash bin in an admitted fit of revenge.
“You’d agree he’s wearing very similar clothes?” she asked.
“Similar, but not the same,” Tran sniffed. “I look like a lot of people.”
Her cross-examination continues Monday.