00:0034-year-old Tatiana Dokutaro called triple zero from her Liverpool apartment one night in May 2023
00:08and told an operator that her ex-partner Danny Zayat was trying to kill her and steal her money.
00:15But 31-year-old Zayat pleaded not guilty to murder in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
00:20At this trial, his lawyers argued that they did have an argument that night,
00:24but they said he left and he returned the next day to find her dead.
00:28A Supreme Court jury heard that Ms Dokutaro's cause of death was blunt force head injury.
00:34But the jurors in this case were required to weigh up a matrix of circumstantial evidence
00:39largely concerning the history of their relationship.
00:43They saw evidence including about Ms Dokutaro previously suffering injuries, including bruising around her neck.
00:50And they heard that she'd previously told friends that some of the injuries were from things like a car accident
00:55or falling over while she was cleaning.
00:57But the Crown said that wasn't the truth.
00:59And they accused Danny Zayat of having tendencies to be physically violent and verbally abusive towards her.
01:06It took the jury about three and a half days to reach this decision.
01:10And they reached the decision by majority 11 to 1 vote.
01:14Danny Zayat's lawyers had attempted to argue that at least one of the key injuries
01:18suffered by Ms Dokutaro may have been an accident.
01:22And the jury saw that in body-worn camera footage and in secretly recorded conversations,
01:28he was suggesting that her use of sleeping pills may have played a part
01:31and that her injuries may have been an accident.
01:35Ultimately, the jurors weren't convinced about that.
01:37And they returned this decision by majority after previously signalling to the judge
01:42that they were struggling to reach a unanimous decision.
01:45Danny Zayat made no reaction in court as he learned that decision today.
01:50But after he sat down, he hung his head and looked defeated.
01:53Tatiana Dokutaro's parents were watching that moment online from a video link from Canada.
02:00And in court was Danny Zayat's brother.
02:02The Senate's proceedings in this case are now expected to take place in December this year.
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