A man accused of glassing a passer-by on a Gwynneville sidewalk admits to landing a blow with a bottle in his hand, but denies he intended to cause his victim’s life-threatening injury.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Drunk, and with no expertise in human anatomy, Oskar Calvi could not have deliberately nicked his victim’s external jugular vein, Calvi’s barrister argued, at the 20-year-old’s Wollongong District Court trial on Thursday.
Calvi admits to recklessly wounding Gwynneville man David Merxhushi the night of June 24, 2015, as the pair crossed paths on Foley Street, each accompanied by a friend.
To prove the more serious charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, prosecutors must show Calvi planned to cause Mr Merxhushi serious injury when he dealt the blow.
From the stand on Thursday, Calvi told the jury he was too drunk – an “eight out of ten” – to have intended anything.
He said he was taking swigs from a half-empty bottle of VB - found abandoned in the carpark of Wiseman’s Bowling Club moments earlier – when he and his friend, Christopher Anderson, encountered Merxhushi.
He told the court Anderson and Mr Merxhushi exchanged “smart-a--e” comments, and he initially defused their conflict. He accused Merxhushi of behaving aggressively, and said it was Merxhushi who struck first, hitting him in the face three times.
“I struck him back ... with my hand,” Calvi said.
“Was there something I your hand,” Calvi’s barrister, Sandy Wetmore, asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you know whether or not the bottle broke when you struck him.
“No.”
“Did you realise at that point you'd caused some considerable damage to the victim.”
“No.
Mr Merxhushi suffered cuts to his face, head and – most seriously - his neck, where the wound came within a centimetre of his carotid artery, according to expert medical evidence.
Calvi denied he told Anderson “I stabbed him [Merxhushi]” the next day, as Anderson claimed in earlier evidence.
He told the court he first heard about the stabbing when police visited his home a month later.
The prosecution is relying on the evidence of three witnessses –Anderson, Mr Merxhushi and his friend, Agim Bekirovski – who claim have heard the sound of glass smashing in the seconds leading to the moment Mr Merxhushi was injured.
A bowling club kitchenhand, Alexander Thorndyke, witnessed the attack.
In evidence, he described Calvi as the aggressor and said Mr Merxhushi was “walking backwards with his hands up” when Calvi went to hit him.
“He had something in his hand. I couldn't make out what he was holding,” he said.
Mr Thorndyke later visited the site of the altercation and noted there was broken glass on the opposite side of the road.
“I saw the glass on the eastern side, and I saw the attack more of the western side,” he said.
Crown prosecutor Mark Heffernan called on jurors to consider “the irresistible inference that the bottle was broken before the first blow by the accused”.
This, and the location of Mr Merxhushi’s wounds, showed Calvi’s “clear intent to do really serious harm”, he argued.
“Look at the area that has been targeted. It’s not a leg, it’s not his back. Not in his stomach or chest. He goes for his head and neck.”
The jury retired to consider its verdict at 3.10pm. The trial continues, Friday.
