A pair of lovers murdered a Melbourne husband by sedating him with sleeping pills and giving him either cyanide-laced orange juice or a fatal avocado shake, a jury has heard.
33-year-old Sofia Sam and 35-year-old Arun Kamalasanan are on trial in Melbourne for murdering the woman's husband Sam Abraham at his home in Epping, Melbourne in October 2015.
reports on Tuesday, day two of the ongoing trial, Prosecutor Kerri Judd QC said Mr Abraham may have been drugged with sleeping pills before Kamalasanan fed him cyanide-laced juice as he slept.
"He administered the cyanide himself by sneaking into the house and pouring orange juice with cyanide in it into the mouth of the deceased," she told the jury.
An alternative prosecution case is that Ms Sam put the cyanide in either an avocado shake or an orange juice she prepared for him.
"The female accused said she made an avocado shake for her husband. She also said she made an orange juice for her husband," Ms Judd said.
When the paramedics were called to the home in October 2015, they initially believed Mr Abraham had died from a heart attack in his bed.
Sam Abraham Source: Supplied
But an autopsy revealed Mr Abraham died of cyanide poisoning and also had a sedative in his system.
The court on Monday heard that Sam and Kamalasanan knew each other from their college days in India and they were allegedly having an affair at the time of the murder.
Source: India2Australia
The jury was told they reconnected after they both moved to Melbourne and were meeting in secret.
"It is the prosecution case that both accused murdered Sam Abraham," Ms Judd said on Tuesday.
"Their relationship provided the motive."
Ms Judd on Monday illustrated the pair's relationship by reading passionate diary entries they sent to each other.
"Can you hold me tight? I want to drift away in your love," she read from one of Sam's entries, as the diary was displayed on a screen in court on Monday.
The jury also heard that Mr Abraham's car was transferred into Kamalasanan's name following his death. The pair had also opened a joint account more than a year before Sam Abraham’s death.
The court heard both told police it was against their culture to get divorced.
Both Sam and Kamalasanan have pleaded not guilty. The trial continues on Wednesday.
