A tragic emergency call made by a woman on the night she was tragically killed has surfaced following a jury’s decision to convict her ex-partner of murder.
Tatiana “Tanya” Dokhotaru lost her life in her 22nd-floor apartment located in south-west Sydney on the evening of May 26, 2023.
During a frantic 89-second call to emergency services, she pleaded, “Yes, hi. My ex-boyfriend’s here and he’s trying to kill me,” conveying the immediate danger she faced.
Following a month-long trial in the NSW Supreme Court, Danny Zayat was convicted of murder by a majority jury decision.
After the verdict was announced, the court released the emergency call along with various pieces of evidence, including CCTV footage that captured Zayat fleeing the scene after the crime.
Also disclosed were phone videos depicting bruises on Dokhotaru’s neck from a prior assault by Zayat, further illustrating the history of violence.
The jury heard he had stolen $130,000 cash, his ex-girlfriend had kept stashed at home in a shoebox, earned from her Instagram business selling imitation designer goods.
Zayat’s lawyer had claimed his texts to Dokhotaru weeks before her death undermined allegations he badly beat her with the intention of ending her life.
Texts sent by the 30-year-old show he loved and cherished her, despite their volatile and dysfunctional relationship, the jury was told.
“I really wish things could have been different between us but I’m a f— up ⦠I don’t want to continue to drag you down with me like I have been,” Zayat texted her on May 6.
“You will always be my first proper love, and I don’t think I could ever love anyone else like I love you.”
Zayat’s barrister, Madeleine Avenell SC, argued there was a reasonable possibility that Dokhotaru’s fatal brain injury might have been a result of accidents rather than three injuries inflicted by Zayat.
The builder told reporters in an interview before he was charged with murder that his ex had died from a drug overdose.
Thursday’s 11-1 verdict showed the jury sided with the Crown, which had extensively detailed Zayat’s prior violence and control towards his victim.
Dokhotaru had confided in a friend that her ex-partner had allegedly dragged her by the hair, spat on her repeatedly and threatened to kill her during a fight.
“I was fighting him off. I tried calling the cops, but he said he’ll kill me if I do,” she wrote on April 13.
“It was absolute hell. My body is in shock. My mind is too.”
In the messages read out in court, Dokhotaru confided she felt “so humiliated and violated” after the alleged assault and was struggling to process it.
Weeks later, she told her friend Zayat attacked her again after claiming she had been messaging his friend.
“He strangled me so bad, my throat is so bruised and swollen, I can barely breathe,” Dokhotaru texted on May 1.
Dokhotaru’s parents, who live in Canada, testified in October about Zayat’s regular abusive phone calls to their daughter during a visit in 2022.
Zayat was remanded in custody until his sentence on December 19.
Justice Desmond Fagan dismissed defence pleas to not move so quickly to sentence, despite hearing that state-funded psychological and psychiatric reports would need to be prepared.
“Legal Aid must consider this promptly … and someone must prepare in anticipation of getting that grant,” he said.
Dokhotaru’s parents were not in Australia for the verdicts.
