Murder accused allegedly bashed housemate to death over long-running internet dispute




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Nikola Milosevic was charged with the murder of Danny Barber in 2019. (ABC News)

An Adelaide man accused of murdering his housemate over an ongoing dispute about internet usage has gone on trial, with prosecutors alleging the victim was struck more than 30 times during an attack that happened over several hours.

The jury was today told Nikola Milosevic, 39, allegedly used a baseball bat, wheelie bin and bicycle to bash 52-year-old Danny Barber to death at their North Plympton share house on August 23, 2019.

Mr Milosevic has admitted to Mr Barber’s manslaughter but has pleaded not guilty to his murder.

In an opening submission today, prosecutor Carmen Matteo told the jury Mr Milosevic had called triple zero at 3:09am and told the operator he had “just got home and he didn’t know what happened but it looked like someone had beaten his housemate up and he was in a bad way”.

“At the time the accused made that call, his housemate Danny Barber lay in their backyard bleeding from extensive injuries to his head,” she said.

“By 3:50pm, Danny Barber was pronounced dead.”

Ms Matteo said Mr Milosevic told emergency crews that he did not know what had happened to the dead man and “he went on to repeat that line to police” for several hours.

“The prosecution alleges he beat Danny Barber to death,” she said.

Note was ‘knifed’ to the door

Ms Matteo told the jury that three other men lived in the share house at the time of Mr Barber’s killing.

She said each had detailed a long-running dispute between Mr Milosevic and Mr Barber over the household internet, and one of the men told police that “when the internet would cut out, Danny Barber would come into the house yelling and blaming the accused for that”.

“Earlier in the night (of the killing), Danny Barber had come into the house shouting about problems with the internet and ended up pulling the power cable from the modem,” Ms Matteo said.

Ms Matteo said that, shortly after that, Mr Barber smashed Mr Milosevic’s bedroom window and “knifed” a handwritten note to his bedroom door.

The prosecution said Mr Milosevic was not at home at the time but returned home late in the evening of August 22.

Ms Matteo told jurors that one of Mr Milosevic’s housemates had told police he saw him walk out of his bedroom with a baseball bat and into the backyard where Mr Barber – who was drunk – was urinating on a fence.

“He saw the accused use the baseball bat to strike down Danny Barber. Mr Barber was yelling ‘harder, harder’ and the accused continued to strike him,” she said.

Ms Matteo said the housemate ended up “going back to his bedroom, he just didn’t want to get involved”.

“At a later point in time … he looked out his bedroom window again and when he did so … he saw the accused carrying a wheelie bin, holding it with both hands out in front of him and above the ground,” she said.

“He saw the accused bring the wheelie bin down and strike it on Mr Barber, on the head.”

She said the housemate had “smoked some cannabis for its calming effect and it’s possible that caused him to dose off”.

The eight-day trial continues.

Source: Thanks msn.com