Victorian man found guilty of murdering 26-year-old girlfriend
A Victorian man has been found guilty for murder after strangling his girlfriend and sending messages to her sisters pretending to be alive.
A The jury today unanimously found Adam Margolis was responsible for the death of Mai-Yia Vang after he fatally strangled her in February of 2018.
The two met online in 2018 and had only been living together for a week in his Bendigo home when he killed her.
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Mai-Yia Vang was strangled to death in 2018. Supplied
Adam Margolis was found guilty of murder by a unanimous jury. Nine
Margolis blamed his partner for provoking him, saying she caused him to have a PTSD flashback from his abusive childhood.
After he choked Ms Vang, the 41-year old pretended to be Ms Vang online, talking to her sisters in Facebook messages.
"Am really sick now. Flu I think. I'm being looked after," he wrote.
Instead, the body of the former chemical engineering student was left on Margolis' floor for two days while he tried to garner sympathy from friends.
Margolis emailed his friends, saying "I have killed a woman", and describing his girlfriend as being "vicious" and "prone to delusional hysteria".
"I blacked out then to find myself on the floor with her in a choke hold," he wrote.
Margolis initially tried to use the mental impairment defence, but was rejected by psychologists.
He later said he had recordings of Ms Vang assaulting him.
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Magolis left Ms Vang's body for two days in his Bendigo while pretending to be her online. Nine
Detectives testified at his trial there was no evidence of that.
The jury took less than 24 hours to reach a unanimous guilty verdict.
When Margolis was told he was officially a murderer, he put his head in his hands, refused to stand for the judge, and had to be comforted by prison guards.
He is now facing life in prison.
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