The night before Katherine Abdallah killed her cousin at her Sydney townhouse she told police ‘she’s going to be in serious trouble when I get her’.
‘You guys will probably be called back,’ she added in what proved to be an eerily accurate prediction.
Abdallah had been involved in a violent and prolonged argument over her new $184,000 Mercedes before she armed herself with two knives and fatally stabbed 21-year-old Suzie Sarkis.
Katherine Abdallah (right) arrives at the NSW Supreme Court with her lawyer on November 24
Abdallah (left) stabbed Suzie Sarkis (right) to death in 2013 after an argument over a new car
Justice Julia Longergan on Monday revoked Abdallah’s bail following the manslaughter verdict
The now 37-year-old Abdallah claimed she’d acted in self-defence when she killed her cousin at her Brighton-Le-Sands townhouse in February 2013.
However, after almost five days of deliberations, a NSW Supreme Court jury on Monday found her guilty of manslaughter, echoing the verdict at her first trial.
Abdallah originally faced a murder trial but was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed in May 2015 for at least eight years and three months.
Later that year she successfully challenged her conviction and was ordered to face a second trial. She was released on bail in February 2016.
At the retrial, crown prosecutor John Bowers contended the stabbing wasn’t done in self-defence but was a continuation of violence by Abdallah after she became angry at her cousin for using her new Mercedes.
‘The crown case is that Ms Abdallah stabbed Ms Sarkis as an act in a series of violent acts that were generated or triggered by ongoing hostility and aggression that Saturday because of the incident of the car,’ he said.
Abdallah originally faced a murder trial in May 2015, but was found guilty of manslaughter
Christine (left) and Mary Sarkis, sister and mother of victim Suzie Sarkis, leave court in 2015
Police visited Abdallah on the night of February 8 after clocking Ms Sarkis doing 112km/h.
The younger woman had driven off after police pulled her over during which she slightly damaged the car when hitting the gutter.
Abdallah became frustrated and agitated, telling police: ‘I bought that car on finance – do you know how expensive it is to replace parts?’
The next day, a Saturday, she found out her cousin had taken the Mercedes a second time, leading to them fighting in the street.
The jury saw CCTV footage, which did not record sound, from inside the townhouse showing the women verbally fighting before it got physical.
Katherine Abdallah is escorted from a prison transport vehicle into the Supreme Court of NSW
Pictured: Abdallah, 37, slapped and kicker her cousin before stabbing her with a kitchen knife
It included Abdallah slapping her cousin’s face before Ms Sarkis smashed a vase onto the floor and kicked Abdallah.
Abdallah used a four-pack of drink bottles to strike Ms Sarkis, before running into the kitchen, grabbing the knives and stabbing her once in the chest.
Mr Bowers noted the lies told by Abdallah immediately after the stabbing including blaming a fat, tall Lebanese woman with a tattoo on her hand.
She also lied to a triple-zero operator saying she was applying pressure to the wound when she was in fact carefully cleaning the two knives.
Justice Julia Longergan on Monday revoked Abdallah’s bail and adjourned the case for a week
Abdallah (left) initially lied and said that a Lebanese woman with a tattoo stabbed Suzie (right)
Abdallah (right) fronted NSW Supreme Court where she was found guilty of manslaughter
‘The operator gave her instructions to do things for Ms Sarkis which might have made a difference if Ms Abdallah had done them,’ he said.
She was not acting in a panic but in ‘her own best interests as she saw them’, getting rid of evidence linking her to the knives.
Justice Julia Longergan on Monday revoked Abdallah’s bail and adjourned the case to December 13.