NSW Police officers have given evidence in Milenko Snjegota’s trial. Photo: istock.
Running water and long grass hampered police assessment of the Farmborough Heights backyard where Vitomir ‘Vic’ Snjegota was killed, a Wollongong court has heard.
Vic Snjegota was found dead, covered by a white sheet, on his Primrose Place property on 4 February 2024. He was hit in the head with a blunt object at least seven times.
His son Milenko Snjegota, also known as Gobesan, is on trial charged with Vic’s murder.
Milenko has plead not guilty.
Crime scene officer Kirsten Johnston was in charge of the scene. She said the scene “appeared to have been altered” by the time she arrived.
“There was water on the ground, but the tap was turned off,” she said.
“I believed the sheet covering the deceased was moved and replaced.
“The concrete underneath furniture in the rear yard was wet. It was likely areas of the grass were wet but I couldn’t tell you the extent due to the long grass.”
Vic’s neighbour, Stephen Peck, previously told the court he turned off a gushing hose at the tap shortly before he found Vic’s body.
Crime scene officer Corinne Lynch said she did not attend the scene, but assessed it based on photographs taken at the time.
She identified a number of blood stains near Vic’s body, however, she said some stains were difficult to assess.
Defence barrister Scott Fraser asked her if the surface the stains were found on caused the difficulty.
“Grass and leaves are flexible, they can move,” he said.
“Grass can also grow at different angles from the soil, blood can go into the soil, various things can happen?”
Officer Lynch agreed.
She told the court based on the flow of blood from Vic’s facial wounds, and the lack of blood on his body and clothes, it appeared he was struck while on the ground, however, there was little blood behind his head.
“His head was wet, and the absence of blood around the back of the head could be explained by running water,” she said.
Asked by the defence whether Vic’s head was wet due to blood, she said it was not, as his hair appeared glossy, rather than dark.
She also told the court it was likely, based on blood stains on Vic’s hands, that they were near his face around the time he was struck.
She was of the opinion he had been moved onto a blanket and the sheet placed over him shortly after he was killed.
Officer Lynch also gave evidence about stains found on Milenko’s shoes.
She said drops of blood belonging to Vic were found on the uppers and sole of a pair of shoes.
“I concluded the stains were caused by a person or object carrying the blood of Vitomir Snjegota, but I cannot identify where they came from,” she said.
Mr Fraser asked Officer Lynch if there was any way to tell when the blood came to be on the shoes.
“There is some cracking in stain number seven, and that usually appears when a stain is fully dried,” she said.
“There are too many variables to tell how long it had been fully dried for.”
The trial continues.
