How sledgehammer murderer Domenico Papalia gained an accomplice and stole from victim Edward Camilleri’s family
DETECTIVE Sergeant Phil Neagle was about to shut the book on the 2011 murder of Edward “Eddie” Camilleri when a young catwalk model muttered five words that changed everything.
IT sounds like the plot of a courtroom TV drama.
Sitting in a Supreme Court dock facing a murder charge was Domenico Antonio Papalia.
Liar. Thief. Manipulator.
His victim was his best friend, Edward Camilleri, killed by a sledgehammer blow to the head in 2011.
The family theatrics at trial turned this distinguished court of law into a zoo.
The Camilleri family was accused of coaching witnesses from the public gallery and a lawyer sensationally asked a witness whether he was the real killer while on the stand.
Justice Michael David threatened to stop the trial if the antics didn’t stop.
But the most shocking element of all was Papalia’s power of coercion.
He tricked a young model into helping him commit the gruesome murder and then extorted money from the Camilleri family on the false pretence he would solve the devastating disappearance of their son and brother.
But this was not the script from a TV show.
This story had a real victim, a grief-stricken family and a cold-blooded killer.
THE DISAPPEARANCE
IT remains a mystery exactly what night this crime took place.
But, for 139 days, the Camilleri family did not know what had happened to their beloved Eddie. He had vanished without a trace.
He was last seen alive on April 15, 2011, and his body was found on August 31, 2011.
For those four agonising months, questions about what exactly happened to Mr Camilleri started to mount for his family, who missed their son, brother and uncle.
His parents Emanuel and Theresa turned to his friends for help. They turned to Domenico “Dom” Papalia.
The friend expressed his concern and started hypothesising about what had happened to Mr Camilleri.
He told several different theories about the mysterious disappearance.
Papalia took thousands of dollars from the Camilleri family to organise searches. He gave them hope. The Camilleri family wanted to report their Eddie missing but Papalia dissuaded them.
He told them he would personally search drug houses to find his friend and that he felt stressed about the search and police involvement would only make him look bad.
Papalia told the family he had spent $200,000 looking for Mr Camilleri and wanted to be reimbursed.
Mr Camilleri’s sister, Joan Hall, told the Supreme Court that Papalia warned her that if her family were not careful they “would find my brother’s body in a backyard”. But Papalia’s promise of a drug house search never happened.
While the devastated family looked for answers beyond their front doorstep, Papalia violated them from the inside.
He stole $48,000 cash from Mr Camilleri’s safe, along with jewellery he later sold to Cash Converters.
Eventually, Papalia claimed he had “received information” about his friend’s disappearance and led investigating police to his grandparents’ property at Two Wells. He told them they would most likely find some answers.
After an extensive search, they left empty-handed. It was a dead-end, or so they thought.
But Papalia insisted that police return and when they did, officers found the body of Edward Camilleri buried in a shallow grave in the shed.
THE CATWALK MODEL
HE was young, impressionable and easy to manipulate.
At the time, Steven Zenuni was a 21-year-old aspiring model with Tanya Powell Model Agency when he inexplicably got caught up in the murder of Mr Camilleri – a man he had never met.
Sitting in his grandparents’ shed at Two Wells, Papalia offered Zenuni some cocaine.
Despite four attempts to refuse the offer, the master manipulator got his way, wearing down Zenuni to the point he felt the easiest option was just to take the drugs.
“It was my first time,” he told the Supreme Court.
“He told me someone was coming over but he didn’t say who. He told me that this person was dangerous, that he was a bikie and he carried firearms.”
Papalia got a hammer and told him it was just in case something went wrong. He offered him more cocaine and said, ‘Here, you’ll need it’.
A man arrived and, to Zenuni, they appeared to be friends.
They started to discuss a drug import from Sydney and named Zenuni as the courier.
Zenuni was confused but “quite sure” he had not agreed to any part in a drug run.
“I was confused at the time because I was under the impression that Domenic didn’t like this man but here they were getting along well,” he said.
“I wasn’t sure if it was the effect of the drugs, but I was quite sure I hadn’t agreed to take part in (the drug import).”
Mr Camilleri went to his car, giving Papalia the opportunity to place the hammer on top of the timber beam in the shed doorway.
“Domenic told me that I had to hit this man on the head with the hammer. He told me we had to teach him a lesson, we had to scare him,” Zenuni told the court.
“I told him that I didn’t want to do it but he kept repeating himself.”
Mr Camilleri returned and, behind his back, Papalia motioned for Zenuni to hit him with the hammer, mouthing the words ‘Do it, do it’.
“I reached for the hammer and hit Eddie. He jumped up and clutched at his head. He was quite shocked,” Zenuni said. “For a time, nobody said anything. Then Domenic said loudly, ‘What are you doing Steven?’ I was confused because he was the one who told me to do it.
“After that he said much more quietly, ‘Finish it’.
“Eddie came towards me, he grabbed the hammer and we wrestled for control of it. We began punching each other.”
THE MANIPULATOR
PAPALIA claimed he was there but took no part in the killing.
He told the jury he was a shocked bystander as he witnessed two men kill his friend with hammers.
He swore on oath he was so frightened by these men that he agreed to bury the body.
His decision not to report the brutal crime to police, he said, was for fear of retribution from the real killers.
He was also trying to deflect attention away from him because he was guilty of disposing of the body.
Papalia pointed the finger at Steven Zenuni and Ryan Colombini.
Zenuni had already admitted to being involved in the murder and Mr Colombini was the victim’s nephew.
“I remember Steven Zenuni yelling out to Ryan and Eddie ‘Youse two c...s are f...ed’,” he told the jury as gave evidence in his own defence.
“I witnessed Steven Zenuni smash Eddie with a hammer.”
He said Zenuni repeatedly struck Mr Camilleri with the hammer while he was on the ground.
Papalia said Mr Colombini became involved in the attack and started hitting Mr Camilleri with a second hammer.
“Eddie proceeded to get up and Ryan gave him one more hit and he just dropped,” he said.
When asked why he did not intervene, Papalia said he did not know.
“I should have tried my hardest but I froze up,” he said.
“They were both just standing there looking at me with hammers in their hands. It was just a really awkward sort of silence.”
Papalia said he put Mr Camilleri’s body in a wheelie bin, after Zenuni and Mr Colombini had driven off, and buried him in a shed on the property two days later.
He told the jury that he did not immediately go to police after the murder for fear of retribution.
“After what I witnessed, how brutal it was, I just thought it would be better to go along and keep my mouth shut otherwise something might happen to me,” he said.
THE CRIME
THE first strike, to the side of Mr Camilleri’s head, came from a hammer in the hands of Zenuni.
Mr Camilleri lunged at his attacker, grabbing the hammer and wrestling with Zenuni.
He turned to his friend and said, ‘Dom, why are you letting him do this? Dom, why aren’t you helping me? Dom, are you going to let him kill me?’
Zenuni and Mr Camilleri were soon exhausted from the struggle and Zenuni thought it was all over and went to stand up.
Zenuni punched Mr Camilleri a few more times, causing him to drop the weapon. He then threw it away.
“At that point, I saw an object hit Eddie to the left side of his head. When I stood, I turned and saw Dom raise a sledgehammer above his head and hit Eddie a second time,” Zenuni recalled.
“After the first blow, Eddie made a low-pitched, grunting, moaning sort of scream. I was covered in blood from the impact of the sledgehammer. I stood up and started backing away.”
Papalia started going through Mr Camilleri’s pockets and muttering something about having to find his keys.
“Eventually I said something about ‘I don’t want to be here, I want to go home’,” Zenuni said.
“He dragged Eddie to the northern side of the property and covered him with two stray pieces of corrugated iron.
“He got a bucket, filled it with water and began washing the grassed area because it was covered in blood.
“I kept telling him I wanted to go home.”
Papalia went to his car and grabbed a large plastic bag, pulled out a grey jumper and track pants before handing them to Zenuni. He told him to get changed.
He handed the youngster his keys and told him to take his car, drive away and return to collect him when he called.
“As I was walking to Domenic’s car, I saw him open the door to Eddie’s car and start going through it. I’m not sure what he was looking for,” Zenuni said. “I got in his car and drove away.”
THE ZOO
EMOTION was running high as Papalia was prosecuted for the murder of Mr Camilleri.
His heartbroken family were confronted with the fact that it was his best friend who was accused of killing him.
And then came the revelation that they had been repeatedly lied to, tricked and manipulated as Papalia tried to conceal his crime.
But with emotion flowing through the courtroom, it became the catalyst for outbursts that prompted Justice David to give an extraordinary warning to the Camilleri family, flagging the possibility of a mistrial just days into the three-week trial, saying the Camilleri family had turned the court into a zoo.
“I’m serious about this … this is a court of law, not a zoo,” he said.
Frances Nelson QC, for Papalia, accused the Camilleri family of coaching witnesses as they gave evidence.
She said she could hear Mr Camilleri’s father, Emanuel, speaking to a witness from the public gallery.
“If I can hear them, the jury can hear them, and I think it has to be taken into account,” she told the court.
“I get the impression that there may be some attempt to prompt the witness.”
But prosecutor Jim Pearce QC said the utterances were from a “clearly upset, arguably traumatised and certainly emotional parents and sister”.
“They weren’t considered, they weren’t rational, they weren’t necessarily – dare I say – vindictive,” he said.
“They were just simply angry outbursts by someone who is looking for someone to blame.”
In his warning, Justice David threatened to stop the trial if the outbursts continued.
In another sensational moment during the trial, while cross-examining Mr Colombini, Ms Nelson also accused Mr Colombini of being the real killer. From the witness box, he reacted with shock before responding: “You’re joking?”
In his victim impact statement, Mr Colombini said he was left “shattered” by his uncle’s disappearance.
“The impact for me I will never be able to truly describe,” he wrote.
“This has changed my life – not only did you take the life of my uncle but then you pointed the finger at me,” he wrote.
“I was made to feel like he wasn’t the person I knew. You made up stories about Eddie.
“You led me to believe that Eddie didn’t give a s..t about me. Everything you said about my uncle … the lies and deceit … it was all really a cover for your own sad life.
“To me, you are cruel and infuriating. You’re an actor. You pretend your way through life.”
THE TIME
HIS motivation is suspected to be greed.
For his crime, Papalia was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 22 years.
He is now 35 and won’t be released until he is at least 52. His appeal bids have failed.
Zenuni was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 10 ½ years.