Love triangle led to murder, body in river, court told
About two months before he was allegedly murdered by a friend, Jason Palmer told his ex-wife to choose which man she wanted to have a relationship with.
When Renny Palmer chose her ex-husband over her friend Gofal Baziad, the spurned man brutally murdered his romantic rival, a jury has heard.
Mr Palmer was hit in the head with a patterned glass object before being stabbed multiple times in the torso, sides and back at his Sydney flat in February 2004.
Baziad, now 54, flew abroad months later.
He was arrested in 2024 and faces a NSW Supreme Court trial on Thursday in which he pleaded not guilty to murder.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told a panel of 15 jurors that Mr and Mrs Palmer married in 1996 and separated in 2002 after having an affair.
In late 2002, she began a close relationship with Baziad.
Despite this history, the two men remained friends, Mr. Hatfield said.
Mrs Palmer is expected to testify at the hearing that she always had strong feelings for her ex-husband and wanted to make him jealous through her relationship with Baziad.
In December 2003 the three met to discuss the situation and Ms Palmer was asked to choose between the two men.
Mr Hatfield said Baziad had indicated that she accepted the decision when she chose her ex-husband.
But months later, Mr Palmer was last seen leaving his home in south-west Sydney with his friend on February 6, 2004.
His body was found 23 days later, hidden in a sleeping bag and weighed down with rocks in the Nepean River west of the city.
Mr Hatfield said the injury to Mr Palmer’s head showed that he had no defensive wounds to his body and that he was motionless at the time of the stabbing.
While there were no eyewitnesses regarding the alleged murder, prosecutors filed a second-degree case against Baziad.
The jury asked the 54-year-old man’s friends to lie and say he had telephoned police looking for him on the night Mr Palmer disappeared.
Baziad also removed most of the carpeting from the flat he rented in Lakemba before vacating the premises following the alleged murder.
Police investigators found traces of blood spatter inside the unit with a DNA profile matching Mr. Palmer’s, Mr. Hatfield said.
The jury was told Baziad told Ms Palmer her ex-husband was not returning her calls because he was with a girlfriend.
The day after the alleged murder, he came to her house and shared her bed.
“I miss you, I love you, I want you,” he allegedly told her.
The hearing continues on Friday.
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