November 11, 2013: A Melbourne court has heard that James Stoneham conducted web searches, including the prison sentence for murder, before killing his ex-girlfriend Adriana Donato. The Victorian Supreme Court heard how 22-year-old James Stoneham used his computer and smartphone to search for such words as murder and chloroform before he stabbing his former girlfriend to death. Adriana Donato, 20, was set to graduate from Melbourne University with Bachelors in Science when a single stab wound to the neck severed her carotid artery, killing her on August 23 in Riverside Park, in Melbournes northwest. Crown prosecutor Mark Rochford, SC, told the court how Stoneham had not taken the couples December 2011 breakup well, leading him to attempt suicide on several occasions, Fairfax Media reports. Stoneham, the adopted son of former AFL player Alan Stoneham, searched for ways to climb a wall and a drain pipe and how to break a window quietly, as well as using Google Street View to lookup details of Ms Donatos parents Avondale Heights home where she lived on the second floor. At 9.24pm on August 23, Stoneham phoned a friend to ask Ms Donato if she could come outside while she was at a 21st birthday party. Unaware he was waiting outside, Ms Donato was ordered by Stoneham to get into his car and drove her toward Riverside Park. The prosecution alleged a friend called Stoneham and could hear Ms Donatos cries in the background as well as her say saying, Im scared, hes got a knife. When Stoneham parked the car he stabbed Ms Donato once, the knife entering her neck up to 8cms. Stoneham held a knife to his own throat when police arrived on the scene and threatened to kill himself before surrendering. Both Ms Donatos parents spoke in court about the grief their daughters murder had caused. Mr Donato told the court that Stoneham had planned his daughters murder with precision while Mrs Donato spoke of how she missed her daughter daily. The pre-trial hearing continues, but the crown called for Stoneham to be sentenced for at least 21 years prison. The defence argued that Stoneham, adopted from Sri Lanka in 1991 when he was only eight weeks old, had been suffering major metal illness with psychotic features when he killed Ms Donato. Source: The Age Author: Nicholas McCallum, Approving editor: Jack Hawke
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 18:12:04 +0000