Paepaerei was married to Australian based New Zealander Ti Paepaerei for more than a decade and the couple have four children together. Photo / Supplied
Joshua Homann has been found guilty of the violent murder of his seven months pregnant girlfriend Kirralee Paepaerei who was stabbed to death 49 times and beaten with a metal rod in 2015.
Paepaerei, 37, was married to Australian based New Zealander Ti Paepaerei for more than a decade and the couple have four children together.
The jury returned the guilty verdict in under three hours on Tuesday after retiring at 11.40am to deliberate on whether Homann had murdered the pregnant Sydney mother or whether he was mentally ill.
They jury was given the choice of finding him guilty of manslaughter because he was impaired by mental illness from ice use, but swiftly returned the guilty verdict.
Paepaerei, who was expecting her fifth child with then de facto Homann, was stabbed 28 times in the face including incisions into her jugular arteries, and 21 times in the chest.
Her body was found in the couple's western Sydney home in September 2015.
The nine man and three woman jury retired on Tuesday before a NSW Supreme courtroom packed with relatives of Ms Paepaerei.
Homann, 41, had pleaded not guilty to murder and his defence barrister argued that he had an underlying mental illness and could not remember killing Paepaerei.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Stephen Allnutt, for the defence, testified the accused had a chronic psychotic disorder and his capacity to judge right from wrong was substantially impaired.
But the jury did not believe him.
During a trial running just under two weeks, the jury heard that on September 21, 2015, young relative found Paepaerei's body in the upstairs bedroom of the Mt Druitt townhouse the couple shared, but her unborn baby could not be saved.
One of the boys saw Homann at the top of the stairs yelling "shut the f***ing door" and "you f***ing, f***ing c**ts".
Homann crashed through an upstairs window fleeing the scene and then turned up at Mt Druitt Police Station saying he had been attacked by an intruder with a knife.
Crown evidence from police on duty the night Paepaerei died said Homann came into Mt Druitt station saying, "someone broke into my home and tried to stab me.
"Please help, please help, my partner is still at home. I am worried about her."
The trial heard both Homann and Paepaerei had a history of methamphetamine or ice use, but that she has given up drugs for her pregnancy and was "in a very good place".
In summing up on Tuesday morning Justice Lucy McCallum told the jury that certain evidence could be agreed on.
There was "no real dispute" that Homann had caused Kirralee Paepaerei's death, but whether he was not responsible for the act because of mental illness or had intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm.
McCallum said that the Crown's reasons for Homann's actions — that they were part of a lie to cover up his guilt and that his accounts of blackouts and delusion were "selective" and an "exaggeration" — differed from his defence.
Following Paepaerei's death, forensic police had found both her blood and Homann's on a 15cm knife on the mattress.
They also found a large metal rod and "blood spatter on the wall".
Paepaerei's blood diluted with water was found around the sink in the ensuite bathroom, which suggested Homann had deliberately washed himself after the fatal attack.
Heartbreaking evidence during the trial included the triple-0 call made after the teenager found Paepaerei's body.
The 16-year-old had rushed upstairs and turned on the light and saw Paepaerei lying on the ensuite floor, before racing down the stairs and dialling triple-0.
In a recording of the call played in court, the boy could be heard sobbing and crying as he told emergency services that Kirralee Paepaerei was dead.
Relatives wept in court as they heard the teenager's desperate call, saying over and over that Paepaerei was dead and begging "please hurry, please help".
But as the triple-0 operative asked him if it was possible that Paepaerei might be still alive, he repeated four times that she "is dead" and "dead on the floor".
The young man described how he had discovered Paepaerei's body in the upstairs ensuite of the house they shared and first thought she was playing a joke.
"I reached over and turned on the light," he said. "I found [Paepaerei]. She was just laying there. I thought it was a joke at first. I was just tapping [Paepaerei] and telling her to wake up.
"I looked at her neck and I knew straight away."
"The critical focus is on the accused's mental state between 11.30pm and midnight," McCallum said.
"What was in the accused's mind in that half-hour."
In later evidence, psychiatrist Dr Adam Martin, for the Crown, agreed that Homann had suffered ice-induced psychosis before the murder, but did not agree that it was underpinned by a chronic mental condition.
McCallum said Homann had been found not to have sufficient methamphetamine in his system to have been "intoxicated" from the drug during the critical half-hour period.
The trial heard that when the young relatives arrived home and Homann heard them downstairs he launched himself out the window.
"The Crown says the accused is at the sink washing blood and hears [the young relative] come home and his departure is not delusional," McCallum said.
"Sure he was in a panic to get out of there because [the young relative] was home.
"The accused's evidence is he doesn't remember.
"He remembers an argument between him and [Paepaerei] about drugs."