Vasyli lied to police, court told

Thu, Oct 1st 2015, 11:05 AM

The widow of murdered Australian podiatrist Phillip Vasyli lied to police about what she was wearing on the night her husband was killed, prosecutor Neil Brathwaite told jurors in his closing address yesterday. Donna Vasyli, his wife of 34 years, is on trial for his murder that occurred between March 23 and 24 in their guest cottage in the exclusive Old Fort Bay gated community.

Vasyli died from a single, 5 3/4 inch deep stab wound to the neck.

Brathwaite told jurors that the circumstantial evidence presented during the course of the three-week trial pointed to one person as the killer: the defendant. He noted that Mrs. Vasyli claimed she was wearing a pink and white Bahama handprint pants with a white T-shirt on the evening of March 23. However, he pointed to surveillance footage in which two women — a brunette and blonde — are seen walking out of the home at 6:27 p.m.

Brathwaite noted that the second woman was wearing a multicolored dress, just like the one that was taken from the home of the defendant’s daughter on March 27 and on which the deceased’s blood was found.

Brathwaite told the jury: “No white in sight. She’s lying about what she was wearing. She’s lying for a reason. She’s lying because she knows what she did to her husband.” Brathwaite also said that Mrs. Vasyli lied when she told the lead investigator that the home’s cameras were not working. He said, “The evidence before you shows that they were working up to a point.”

The security cameras blacked out around 7:40 p.m, according to the evidence.

Addressing suggestions by the defense that Vasyli could have been killed by an intruder, Brathwaite pointed out there was no evidence of any break-in. He said nothing was disturbed, and an expensive watch was discovered in an upstairs bedroom. Brathwaite noted that by her own admission only Mrs. Vasyli and her husband were in the home once their guests left.

In his closing, defense lawyer Elliot Lockhart, QC, said that it was possible that the killer entered and left by sea.

“You have the canal and you have the ocean that is open,” Lockhart said. “You can go there and have a picnic on that beach and no one can stop you.”

Brathwaite said if the killer had arrived on a jet ski, as suggested by the defense, it would have had to have been parked on the beach and would likely have been discovered during the night patrols. He also pointed out that it was unlikely that the killer would not bring his own weapon, as the murder weapon, a Wusthof knife, came from inside the home.

Brathwaite said, “The knife came from inside the house. It isn’t a weapon that was brought there to be used by someone. There is no evidence anyone was cooking. There was no reason for the presence of that knife outside, other than for the expressed purpose of killing Phillip Vasyli.”

Brathwaite said the arresting officer Jermaine Knowles had no reason to lie about Mrs. Vasyli telling him that she had a fight with her husband.

Brathwaite noted that the gardener, Alejandro Quintano, who discovered Vasyli murdered, said that Mrs. Vasyli came downstairs and told him to “calm down”. Brathwaite emphasized Mrs. Vasyli’s demeanor on the video recorded interview: “She was quite calm, she was quite cool, quite collective.” Brathwaite said the couple did not have a loving relationship as according to the evidence Vasyli was abusive and she had made prior reports to police.

Family friend Myles Pritchard said the Vasylis had separated on several occasions but had reunited.

Senior Justice Stephen Isaacs will sum up the case for the jury today.

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