A lawyer sought to delete evidence linking her husband to a murder because she couldn’t live without him despite knowing he was associated with criminal activities, the jury was told.
In the wee hours of May 28, 2019, Ali Cevik’s wife Alev Rojda Oncu frantically tried to learn what had transpired as he was imprisoned in a police cell.
After his arrest, she texted, “I can’t do life without you.”
Crown prosecutors assert that this is what motivated the 32-year-old Sydney solicitor to attempt erasing CCTV images from her Blacktown house that showed Cevik departing with a different man prior to the murder.
Crown prosecutor Philip Hogan told the jury on Thursday, “She did that in order to obstruct, interfere, or pervert the course of justice that was in train because (Cevik had) been charged with an offense.”
The Crown claims that she did it so that she wouldn’t have to cope with life without him.
Cevik admitted to the murder, the specifics of which are confidential per a court order.
Oncu originally met her spouse when he was a “disciplined, hard-trained” mixed martial arts fighter. They had been together for six to eight years.
In contrast, he later got connected with narcotics and others who had a “bad reputation,” according to Hogan, who delivered the concluding remarks at Parramatta District Court.
The couple wed, acquired a residence, occupied the granny flat while renting out the primary residence.
Ali Cevik had gone off the rails, but Hogan said she couldn’t handle life without him. “Life’s looking good,” he added.
A phone chat with Cevik would have informed the solicitor that her husband was about to get embroiled in major criminal activity hours prior to the murder.
“I’m not sure if I’ll get home tonight. It won’t be OK with the things I’m about to do, he declared.
Oncu allegedly attempted to unplug the CCTV system in their bedroom the day after the police showed up at her residence, but was unable, so she called technician Salar Norouzi to come out.
“She told him that she wanted to erase the footage,” Mr. Hogan added.
The hard disk from the CCTV was examined by the police, who discovered that everything from the time Norouzi was there had vanished.
Police were able to obtain the lost video in August 2022 because to new software.
The lost video shows Cevik departing before the murder, as well as Oncu entering underneath the main house with a laundry basket after her husband was arrested, meeting two people, and taking a black bag to be dumped in the park behind the house.
Oncu testified earlier on Thursday from the witness stand that she had no reason to believe anything at her Blacktown residence would have been useful to authorities.
She vehemently denied having requested that the video be removed, claiming that she had put forth a lot of effort to advance in the legal field.
