Phi Chinh was “extremely shocked” when he was arrested by Hamilton police for first-degree murder and attempted murder on Dec. 9, 2021, in connection with a deadly shooting on Arvin Avenue in Stoney Creek 10 months prior.
Chinh didn’t know the victims, Tyler Pratt, who was killed, and Jordyn Romano, who survived a gunshot to the heart. The shooting led to the loss of her pregnancy.
But he did know Oliver Karafa and Yun (Lucy) Lu Li, the couple now on trial for first-degree murder and attempted murder. They have pleaded not guilty.
“I was quite shocked, and I wanted to find out why too,” Chinh testified, recalling his surprising arrest, at the trial Tuesday.
Court heard that Chinh was arrested because his cellphone account pinged off cell towers travelling from Karafa and Li’s Toronto apartment to the murder scene. After explaining why that was the case, Chinh was not charged and let go unconditionally.
Chinh said he met Karafa more than 10 years ago when they both worked in the same Toronto restaurant. Chinh is a chef and Karafa worked in the front of the house at that time. They “clicked” and became friends.
About a week before the shooting Chinh said Karafa asked him for a favour. On Feb. 28 — the day of the shooting — Karafa said he and Li had a business meeting with someone from Asia and that they needed to be “super confidential.” Chinh said Karafa asked him to change out the SIM card on his phone with one of Karafa and Li’s phones so they couldn’t be tracked to the meeting; he also wanted Chinh to answer messages to Karafa and Li’s cell accounts while they were gone.
Chinh said he asked some questions, but ultimately naively agreed. Surveillance video from Karafa and Li’s condo building showed Chinh arriving a little after 3 p.m.
He recalled Li seemed nervous and he joked around to calm her down; Li and Karafa were running late, Chinh said.
They went over the phone plan again, during which Li went upstairs for 30 seconds to a minute and a half, before rejoining the conversation, Chinh said. The three of them switched the SIM cards between Li’s and Chinh’s phones and then the couple left with the phone containing Chinh’s SIM card, leaving the other two phones behind for Chinh to manage.
Over the next several hours Chinh responded to a message from one of Li’s sisters about a purse. There was another message about the sale of a vehicle. When there were two calls from a number he didn’t recognize, he messaged Karafa and Li but never got a response.
The couple were supposed to be home by around 7 p.m. when Chinh had to leave to go to a friend’s birthday. When he got no response, he left Karafa’s phone and took with him his own phone with Li’s SIM card. He noted that while the SIM card swap changed the phone number, all his other apps remained accessible so he could still message friends using those applications.
Later that night, after a few drinks, Karafa and Li came to him to switch back the SIM cards in a vehicle on the side of the road. He didn’t recall much from the short interaction.
Chinh said a friend alerted him to Karafa being in the news days later, but he was confused because the shooting victim was not Asian and so he wasn’t sure if it was connected. He never contacted police and only spoke to them after his arrest.
Also Tuesday, assistant Crown attorney Mark Dean read an agreed statement of facts about a witness named Mohamad Morad, who did not attend court. According to the agreed facts, Morad first contacted Karafa in February 2021 in response to a Kijiji ad Karafa had placed about selling a Mercedes that belonged to one of Li’s sisters.
Morad travelled from Montreal to Toronto to negotiate that sale and it was after meeting in person that Karafa brought up selling a white Audi Q5, which the trial has already heard was a vehicle Karafa purchased from a friend’s mom hours before the shooting.
The Crown alleges Karafa and Li travelled to Arvin Avenue in that vehicle and it was later found damaged.
In the agreed facts, Dean read through messages exchanged back and forth between Karafa and Morad negotiating the sale of the Audi, and also the 2019 Range Rover that was owned by Romano. The trial also already heard that Romano and Pratt travelled to the scene in that Range Rover, and Romano testified she had no plans to get rid of that newly purchased vehicle.
In the text exchange, Morad repeatedly asks for more pictures of the Range Rover. They eventually settle on selling both for $4,000 with the plan for Morad to pick them up in Toronto March 1 — the day after the shooting.
Karafa messages that the vehicles will be “hot” and need to be exported or sold for parts. Morad agreed to the deal.
On Feb. 28, shortly after 7 p.m., Karafa messaged that both cars are “f—-ed” and will need to be sold for parts. He was now willing to sell both for $2,000.
Morad agreed, but later couldn’t find the vehicles and did not hear from Karafa again. He later contacted police after seeing Karafa on the news.
Police recovered the Range Rover in Mimico and the Audi on Greens Road, near South Service Road. Both were damaged.
Court also heard from Hamilton police crime analyst Jovan Krasulja, who assessed the cellphone records of Karafa, Li, Romano, Pratt and Chinh. The trial continues Wednesday.
Nicole O’Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com
