It was a moment of madness that turned a night out on the Glitter Strip upside down.
And it was all over a handful of greasy potato chips.
Stumbling home after a night on the beers with his friends Jonny Lodge and Kai Thake, Brazilian student Ivan Susin and his friends stopped at a kebab shop on Orchid Lane in the infamous stretch of Surfers Paradise to order some takeout around 1am on September 30, 2019.
As Mr Thake and Mr Lodge tucked into their meal, along came Sydney construction worker Ricky Lefoe and his mate, Shaun Simpson.
They were on a family holiday on the Gold Coast. The two groups were complete strangers to each other as they passed the kebab shop that would later become the site of absolute carnage.
In a heartbeat Mr Simpson – intoxicated, clowning around and acting like ‘the man about town’ – drunkenly pinches some hot chips from the feasting pair, chuckling as he walks off.
The heated moment is captured entirely on CCTV – including the fatal blow to Mr Susin.
Ivan Susin, 29, can be seen throwing a punch after intervening, before he is knocked out cold by Ricky Lefoe. Mr Susin would die in hospital 11 days later. Picture: 9News
Ivan Susin was ordering takeaway when he tried to defend his friends being set upon by Shaun Simpson during a night out in Surfers Paradise in 2019. Picture: Supplied
First, a small dispute erupts. Then Mr Simpson walks back to the seated pair, leans down and throws a punch at Mr Lodge.
The two grapple on the pavement as shocked bystanders watch on. Lefoe, clad in a black hoodie, walks over and stands near his brawling mate before Mr Susin, who is seen ordering from the kebab shop, joins the fray.
He throws a punch at Mr Simpson, which completely misses.
In a heartbeat, he is grabbed by Lefoe, who throws a ‘haymaker’ punch to Mr Susin’s head.
He collapses in a heap on the pavement and doesn’t move.
Lefoe and Mr Simpson are seen walking away from the mess, but not before Mr Simpson lands a blow on Mr Thake.
Ricky Lefoe (pictured) had always insisted he was trying to break up the fight. He was found guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Mr Susin is still lying motionless on the ground. He would die in hospital 11 days later.
The shocking footage dominated courtroom 12 of Brisbane Supreme Court this week as Lefoe finally stood trial over the 29-year-old’s death.
On Monday, he pleaded not guilty to a single charge of manslaughter.
In a painstaking process, the prosecution walked the jury through the fated events of that dreadful night, replaying the grim footage over and over as Lefoe sat quietly in the dock.
Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso argued there were plenty of other avenues for Lefoe to break up the fight or leave it altogether – but he took none of these because he wanted to keep the brawl between his friend and Mr Lodge, and no-one else.
She said his reaction to Mr Susin’s intervention was to throw the deadly punch.
But Lefoe’s defence counsel argued he was ‘scared’ and desperate to break up the fight, knocking Mr Susin down in a bid to protect his friend from any further harm.
Lefoe himself took the stand, revealing he was just trying to buy cigarettes from a convenience store after the night out.
‘My first reaction was to stop the fight, break it up,’ he told the jury on Tuesday.
‘From just out of nowhere someone’s come from behind me and thrown a big haymaker, dog shot to the back of my friend.’
Lefoe gave evidence he thought Mr Susin would keep throwing punches at his friend, explaining he ‘reactively’ threw his own punch.
During cross-examination, Ms Kelso suggested he had time from leaving the convenience store to where the brawl was unfolding to think about what he was going to do.
Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso questioned Lefoe about his actions during the fight, putting to Lefoe he only wanted to keep the brawl between his mate and Mr Lodge and have no-one else intervene
‘Not much time, the convenience store was next door,’ Lefoe answered.
‘You said your first reaction was to stop the fight?’ Ms Kelso asked.
‘I put my arm up to the bloke… I said ‘Stop, what are you (both) doing?” Lefoe answered.
Ms Kelso suggested Lefoe wasn’t concerned about his friend’s safety during the brawl, but he rejected this.
‘Ivan’s punch didn’t hit Shaun, you saw he didn’t actually hit him?’ Ms Kelso asked.
‘It happened so quick… I believe it might have grazed the top of (Shaun’s) head,’ Lefoe said.
Ms Kelso said: ‘Well you were standing right beside Shaun. Ivan was beside you… there was nothing obstructing your view at all, in terms of what Ivan was doing.’
She asked Lefoe if he punched Mr Susin to the head ‘as powerfully’ as he could, to which he disagreed.
‘It all happened so fast, it was a split-second,’ he said.
‘When you grabbed (Mr Susin) by the shoulder you could have shoved him, pushed him with both your hands?’ Ms Kelso asked.
‘I disagree,’ Lefoe answered.
An emotional Ricky Lefoe held his head in his hands after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter before mouthing ‘I’m sorry’ to his victim’s family
Ms Kelso asked Lefoe: ‘Can I suggest to you, your motivation when you were standing next to Shaun when he was on top of Johnny, was to keep other people out of the fight. You just wanted it to be a fight between Shaun and Johnny.
‘Your intention was to let Shaun continue fighting because he was bigger, and he was winning,’ she continued.
‘I disagree – I didn’t want there to be a fight at all,’ Lefoe answered.
In the end, the jury spent less than two hours deciding their verdict.
‘Guilty,’ they answered the judge on Wednesday when asked if they found Lefoe guilty or not guilty of manslaughter.
Members of Mr Susin’s family – including his mother Jane and sister Joseane, who had flown in from Brazil to watch proceedings – gasped audibly and embraced as an emotional Lefoe held his head in his hands.
But they now face a lengthy wait for Lefoe to be sentenced, with several weeks required to obtain a pre-sentence report.
Lefoe mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ to the family, before being led away to the cells.
Outside court, investigating officer Detective Sergeant Noel Jones said the family was naturally ‘devastated’ at losing Ivan in the prime of his life.
‘People need to be aware that this is the sobering reality of punching people,’ Sergeant Jones said.
‘People see a lot of movies where people just get up, but this is not the reality.
‘People will fall and hit their head, and they will never regain consciousness.
‘It’s been a very tough three years for them … (Ivan) was a very well-loved young man.
‘Today is a bit of closure for them, it’s very overwhelming for them at the moment.’
Mr Simpson has already been sentenced for his role in the brawl, walking away from court in 2020 with probation and community service after pleading guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and stealing.
