Look at ‘intent to kill’
A JURY will resume its deliberations on Friday into the alleged attempted murder of a young backpacker who was stabbed by a hostel employee beside a Cairns street.
Mornington Island man Raynard Gregory Moodoonuthi, 37, is on trial in the Cairns Supreme Court, accused of trying to kill Chilean woman Constanza “Kuki” Escudero, 27, after punching her in the kitchen of Gecko’s Backpackers in August last year. The former cleaner broke her nose then, armed with a 30cm-long knife, chased her and her friend out of the hostel on Bunda Street, where he stabbed her in the upper chest.
Mr Moodoonuthi has argued he was trying to “scare” the tourist, not kill her and said he “just snapped” when she hit him with a coffee cup after he allegedly made an unwanted advance.
But during his closing submissions on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said his regret and apology in hindsight did not mean he did not intend to kill her when he was in the act of stabbing her.
“It is immaterial that he doesn’t finish the job. The intent to kill can form quickly and it can dissipate,” he said.
“All we worry about is the time he plunged that knife into her chest, he carried the intent to kill her.
“The test isn’t what he felt afterwards.”
He said it was “irrational” that he would have only been wanting to cause her injury when he stabbed her, particularly because he chose the largest knife in the kitchen drawer before chasing her.
“He was single-minded in his pursuit of Constanza,” Mr Crane said.
“He took a weapon which he knew could cause the death of Constanza.”
Defence barrister Tim Grau said Mr Moodoonuthi’s guilty pleas to the kitchen assault and the lesser charge of wounding with intent in relation to the stabbing showed he accepted responsibility for his actions.
“As serious and as terrifying as his actions were, what Mr Moodoonuthi did not do is he did not intend to kill or murder Constanza,” Mr Grau said.
“He had the opportunity to complete a murder if that was his intent.”