Troy Joshua Townley used a hammer and knife to kill Charlie Boulos, 24, at the home of Karen Hanna, Townley's on-again off-again lover, Crown prosecutor Paul Darcy told the Victorian Supreme Court today.
Defence lawyer Wayne Toohey, however, told the court Ms Hanna and her brother conspired in a plan to rob Boulos and Ms Hanna landed the fatal blows while Townley helped them dispose of the body.
"Mr Townley never agreed to forcefully injure him ... Karen Hanna went off on a frolic and mission of her own,'' he said.
Mr Toohey said Townley, of Derrimut in Melbourne's west, was part of the conspiracy with Ms Hanna to assault and rob Boulos, but had not killed him.
Mr Boulos's badly charred body was found a week after the mechanic went missing by a man walking his dog at a reserve in Laverton North, 13km south of where he was allegedly killed at Ms Hanna's home in St Albans.
Mr Darcy told the court Ms Hanna claims Townley, 25, was sending jealous text messages on the night Mr Boulos was killed on June 23, 2008.
"Karen Hanna said over a period of months leading up to the event occurring, there were tensions and jealousies with the accused man,'' he said.
Boulos, Ms Hanna and her younger brother Michael were using illegal amphetamines in her furnished shed on the night of June 23 when Michael saw Mr Townley lurking in the backyard, Mr Darcy said.
"The accused man came up behind Charlie, put his finger on his lips and Michael thought he was going to play a joke on him,'' he said.
"What happened was anything but a joke, the accused man started the process of hitting Charlie in the head with a hammer forcefully.''
Graphic images displayed how Boulos's skull was fractured countless times from blows with a hammer to his scalp, eye sockets, cheekbones and jaw, with several depressed fractures touching his brain.
He was also stabbed 10 times in the torso and plastic was shoved down his throat but he had died from the hammer blows, forensic pathologist Melissa Baker told the court.
She said the blows were delivered with "severe force'', which the prosecution will argue reveal Mr Townley's intent to murder Boulos.
The trial before Justice Betty King continues.
Jealous is very scared. It can get you blind. You may not know what are you doing at that moment. You can only realize it when you are awake later. But it's too late. Regret is nothing after you done it.
ReplyDeleteSo, please don't make yourself to a corner. Just express your thinking and feeling to anyone who are able to help you. It is useful.