Australian man found guilty of killing B.C.’s Tatiana Dokhotaru in front of young son

WARNING: This story contains descriptions of domestic violence. Discretion is advised.

A Sydney, Australia, man has been found guilty of murdering a B.C. woman in her apartment in 2023.

Danny Zayat was charged with the killing of his ex-girlfriend, 34-year-old Tatiana Dokhotaru. Dokhotaru moved to Australia in 2012, and the couple had a son together.

Dokhotaru’s body was found in an apartment in the Liverpool suburb on May 27, 2023, one day after she was killed, according to the New South Wales Police Force.

According to a pathologist who testified at the trial, Dokhotaru’s cause of death was blunt force head injury, which the Crown said was a result of one or more blows, in combination with a fall.

Dokhotaru’s friend, Amber Haleta, travelled to Sydney for the trial and said that when the verdict came down, she just started screaming.

“I just couldn’t help but, I was screaming, jumping up and down,” she told Global News.

“I knew that this was going to be the verdict, but it is a jury, and you’re just trying to convince 12 people of the same thing. It’s a lot harder than just one judge.”

The court heard that Dokhotaru died shortly after her frantic call to Australia’s emergency line was cut short, during which she told the operator her ex-boyfriend was trying to kill her.

It took the 12-person jury about three-and-a-half days to return with a majority verdict of 11 to one.

“We lost somebody that is super special to us,” Haleta said.

“She was the light in all of our lives. And domestic violence really hits home for me. So it was a pretty big deal.”

After moving to Australia, Haleta alleges that Dokhotaru soon began to complain about domestic abuse and sent videos of her injuries.

The mother and son came back to Vancouver to visit her parents in 2022. She then allegedly got a restraining order against Zayat and moved out of the home they were sharing, according to Haleta.

But on May 27, 2023, she was found dead in her new Sydney, Australia apartment. Haleta told Global News that Dokhotaru’s four-year-old son and estranged husband were in the home when police arrived.

Their son, now six years old, testified at the trial.

“I feel like his mom was, you know, sprinkling all the seeds she needed to and I just can’t imagine what it would be for a little child to endure this and be left alone and witness such horrific events,” Haleta said.

“He said repeatedly, ‘Daddy was very angry, daddy was very angry. Daddy put mommy onto the couch, daddy put mommy onto the couch.’ He also reportedly said he “‘couldn’t wake mommy up.'”

Haleta said it was devastating to hear those words come from such a small child.

“Seeing their last video together from the CCTV footage in the lobby the night it happened, 20 minutes before the accused showed up, was, you know, she was so happy,” she added.

“She was running, chasing him. It’s just, it’s horrific. There’s really no words for it.”

Trending Now

The little boy was the only witness in the case.

Haleta also testified, talking about when Dokhotaru returned to Canada for a visit and what they did together.

“We went for a little mini vacation together, and that’s when the accused was on the phone, threatening her life, calling her horrible names,” Haleta said.

“She was extremely skinny at the time, kind of not eating, just depressing.”

Haleta said the entire ordeal has been hard on everyone who knew Dokhotaru, but it has been hardest on Dokhotaru’s son.

“I just couldn’t imagine my son not having his parents,” she said. “So that devastated me, but then her (Dokhotaru) being an only child and knowing that her mother lost her whole entire world and there’s nothing we can do.

“Even the verdict doesn’t help how we’re feeling. We all haven’t slept. It’s essentially been years of this going on, and we’re finally able to breathe a little, but it still doesn’t take away the fact that this beautiful, bright, intelligent, smart, loving mother, daughter, friend is not here anymore.”

Haleta said she hopes that as her friend’s son grows older, he knows that his mother loved him more than life itself.

“That was the happiest day when she became a mother. She did it with such ease, and she would have done anything in the world for him … I would definitely tell him that she’s extremely proud. We all are. He is a superhero, a little six-year-old superhero.”

Zayat will be sentenced in December. A murder conviction comes with a life sentence in Australia, with parole eligibility to be determined by the judge.

— With files from Rumina Daya, Global News