When Renny Palmer chose her ex-husband over his friend Gofal Baziad, the spurned man violently killed his romantic rival, a jury has heard.
Mr Palmer was bludgeoned over the head with a patterned glass object before being stabbed multiple times in the torso, side and back in his Sydney apartment in February 2004.
Baziad, now 54, flew overseas months later.
He was arrested in 2024 and faced a NSW Supreme Court trial where he pleaded not guilty to murder on Thursday.
Mr and Ms Palmer were married in 1996 before separating in 2002 after he had an affair, crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told a panel of 15 jurors.
In late 2002, she began an intimate relationship with Baziad.
Despite this history, the two men became friends, Mr Hatfield said.
Ms Palmer is expected to testify at trial that she always had strong feelings for her ex-husband and wanted to make him jealous through her relationship with Baziad.
In December 2003, the trio met to discuss the situation and Ms Palmer was asked to chose between the two men.
When she chose her former husband, Baziad indicated he accepted the decision, Mr Hatfield said.
However, months later Mr Palmer was seen for the last time walking out of his partner's home in Sydney's southwest with his friend on February 6, 2004.
His body was found 23 days later concealed in a sleeping bag and weighed down with rocks in the Nepean River in the city's west.
The injury to Mr Palmer's head showed he had been incapacitated at the time of the stabbing, with no defensive wounds on his body, Mr Hatfield said.
While there are no eyewitnesses to the alleged murder, prosecutors have brought a circumstantial case against Baziad.
The 54-year-old asked his friends to lie and tell police Mr Palmer had called looking for him on the night he disappeared, the jury heard.
Baziad also removed large sections of carpet from his rented Lakemba apartment before vacating the premises after the alleged murder.
Police investigators found traces of blood spatter within the unit with a DNA profile matching that of Mr Palmer, Mr Hatfield said.
Baziad told Ms Palmer that her former husband was not answering her calls because he was with a girlfriend, the jury was told.
The day after the alleged murder, he arrived at her home and shared her bed.
"I miss you, I love you, I want you," he allegedly told her.
The trial continues on Friday.
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