A 130-kilogram teenager who punched and stomped on a diminutive 64-year-old stranger has been found not guilty of her murder because of his mental illness.
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Imanueli Jone Degei, who was discharged from a Sydney mental health facility 17 days earlier, said he killed Kristina Kalnic because "God told me that she killed her husband".
In fact, her partner Zivan Gajic witnessed the fatal attack, after asking her to ring emergency services thinking Degei needed help after apparently collapsing outside their Carramar unit.
Degei was charged with murdering Ms Kalnic on August 25 2018, but because of mental illness was unfit to stand trial in the NSW Supreme Court.
After presiding over a special hearing, Acting Justice Peter Hidden on Friday found him not guilty of murder by reason of mental illness.
Two psychiatrists gave evidence about Degei's history of treatment resistant schizophrenia, delusions, auditory hallucinations, thought disorder and paranoid beliefs.
The then 18-year-old "likely did not fully know the nature and quality of his act" and, in any event, "did not know that the act was legally or morally wrong" at the time, according to one expert.
"This expert evidence is compelling, and is consistent with the other evidence in the case," the judge said.
"This was a brutal attack, with tragic consequences, upon an unfortunate woman who was a complete stranger to the accused, for which no rational motive is discernible.
"It was plainly the product of mental illness."
CCTV footage depicted the teenager walking in Carramar area, mumbling and unsteady on his feet, before Mr Gajic spotted him in the middle of the road, swaying and uneasy on his feet.
He saw him chase a small cat down the side of the unit block, shadow box for a while, and then collapse on his back in the front garden.
He phoned Ms Kalnic, who weighed 40 kilograms, and who was inside the unit, asking her to call police and ambulance for help.
Degei got up, looking confused, just when Ms Kalnic emerged from the units.
"Mr Gajic warned her not to approach the accused in case he was dangerous," the judge said.
"However, she did approach him, although Mr Gajic did not observe any conversation between them.
"She began to walk away from him, but the accused punched her, causing her to fall to the ground, and stomped on her head three times.
"She was, of course, not known to him and had done nothing to provoke such an attack.
"The accused then walked past Mr Gajic towards the street.
"He did so casually, as if nothing had happened, and to Mr Gajic he appeared "disconnected from reality as if he was not aware of where he was or what he was doing".
Degei told police he hadn't taken his medication that day but had smoked two cones of cannabis.
When asked if he had taken any other drugs, he mumbled, "Jesus, I take Jesus everywhere".
"The accused will be detained and will be the subject of what is likely to be a lengthy period of treatment and rehabilitation under the supervision of the Mental Health Review Tribunal," the judge concluded.
Australian Associated Press
