She argued the jury should accept witness Tony Quach, a housemate of Levi’s, as an honest, “unfailing and candid” witness who gave persuasive evidence in painstaking detail.
Quach said he saw the accused holding a steak knife with a clenched fist and his right arm bent at a 90-degree angle. He said Fainu’s left arm of him was in a sling, he “looked angry” and had stabbed Levi in the back of him, causing his friend to scream in pain.
Witness Tony Quach leaves court after giving evidence at Manase Fainu’s trial.Credit:AAP
Quach said he “recognized Manase” by features including his “obvious” sling. Under cross-examination, Quach said he had recognized Fainu “after the incident”.
“Mr Quach saw it all clearly because the lights were on, and therefore he wasn’t mistaken about who had the knife,” Curran said. “He had a clear, unobstructed view of a person he had previously known.”
Curran said another witness, Levi’s friend Kupi Toilalo, was “adamant the person with the knife was the person with the sling”, and was heard yelling a warning to others about the weapon.
An Instagram screenshot of Manase Fainu in hospital after shoulder surgery in September 2019, tendered as evidence at his trial.Credit:NSW District Court
It is an agreed fact that Fainu had an operation on his left shoulder in September 2019 and was wearing a sling on the night of the stabbing.
Fainu testified that he had driven his friends to the church as one of them, Uona “Big Buck” Faingaa, wanted to collect money for a concreting job from a man inside. Fainu said, after Faingaa and another friend were kicked out via the front gate, he had gone over the fence expecting to collect the money himself.
“I just saw something, like a brawl going on, when I was on my way to the chapel,” Fainu said.
The prosecutor submitted that Fainu was an unimpressive witness and the jury should reject his evidence that he was at least 10 meters away from the brawl.
“On occasion, his answers were simply fanciful,” Curran said.
In her closing address, defense barrister Margaret Cunneen, SC, said Fainu had been with four other men, and one of them must be the person responsible who had “planned badness.”
“We will never work out in this trial which one it was, but it was not Mr Fainu,” she said.
The group “was the threat”, she said, and Fainu’s sling “drew the eye”.
“The distinguishing feature of the group of five men was the sling,” Cunneen said.
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She said there was no one else’s DNA on Fainu’s sling and nothing to suggest a knife had been kept inside.
“The man with the sling gets the blame for the stab wound,” Cunneen said. “Mr Fainu has really suffered from his position as a football player. It was easy to blame it on him because some people knew him and the sling stood out.”
Cunneen argued her client was truthful and disciplined. “We can infer that from what we know of his short and now distant rugby league career,” she said, noting Fainu testified that NRL players were trained to walk away from fights and not get involved.
“It’s constantly on their mind, they’re representing other people. It defies credulity that he would carry a knife, let alone use it in circumstances where he’s got no fight with anyone.”
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