Aiia Maasarwe’s horrifying final moments revealed in court
A court has heard of the frightening last words of 21-year-old Aiia Maasarwe before she was attacked with a metal pole and killed by wannabe rapper Codey Herrmann.
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The horrifying last moments of slain student Aiia Maasarwe have been revealed in court, including her final words as she tried to fight off her attacker.
The 21-year-old had called her sister Ruba in Israel on the walk home, telling her “I didn’t expect you to answer”.
It would be the last words she would say to her sister.
Ruba then heard her sister screaming and saying “You piece of s---” in Arabic, before hearing four loud thuds.
A Supreme Court pre-sentence hearing today heard those noises were Codey Herrmann, 21, repeatedly attacking Aiia over the head with a metal pole.
Herrmann, a wannabe rapper who was homeless, has pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of Aiia at Bundoora on January 16 this year.
Prosecutor Patrick Bourke told the court Herrmann hit Aiia over the head four times before dragging her body behind a hedge, where he raped her.
Mr Bourke said Herrmann then struck Aiia to the head a further nine times, fracturing her skull, before fleeing the scene.
But he left a trail of evidence along the way, which lead police to arrest him two days later.
Crime scene photos showed his black cap caught in a nearby barbed wire fence, which he jumped to escape into a reserve.
On the other side, his bloodstained T-shirt was dumped on the ground.
Further along in the grass was Aiia’s purse. A few metres away was the murder weapon.
His fingerprints and DNA were found on all of the items.
Blood stains on his shoes on his arrest matched Aiia.
But when interviewed by homicide investigators, the court heard he denied the killing.
“I didn’t kill no-one,” Herrmann said, adding how he “wouldn’t have a clue” how the victim’s blood was on his shoes.
He claimed he had lost his hat when it “blew away”.
The court heard two days before he killed Aiia, Herrmann told a friend: “Bro, I just had like five psychosis. I saw a murder in my head.”
On December 3 and 9, Herrmann was also seen at Aiia’s apartment building.
But Mr Bourke said the pair had never met, and he was not relying on this to prove the murder was premeditated.
CCTV footage played in court showed Herrmann wandering outside the Polaris Shopping Centre as he made his way towards Main Drive, where he would cross paths with Aiia.
Aiia had been at a comedy show with friends in the city, and was walking home after getting off the Route 86 tram near La Trobe University.
Her older sister Ruba, in a victim impact statement read out in court, detailed how she felt she had let her sister down by not being able to protect her.
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They had ritually called each other on late night walks home as they felt it was safer.
“I can’t imagine the horror she felt when she saw Codey Herrmann’s face,” Ruba said.
Speaking to the “monster” who laid his “nasty hands” on her sister, she said she hoped Aiia’s face was the last thing he saw when he closed his eyes at night.
Aiia’s mother Kittam likened her “beautiful girl” to “a butterfly flying high in the sky”.
She could speak three languages and loved Australia, she said.
“My heart is torn apart by Aiia’s departure,” she said.
The hearing continues.