Man learns fate for brutally murdering ex in jealous rage

A young mother was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend in a ‘vicious and prolonged attack’ after he found her with another man.

A man has been jailed for 28 years for brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend in “an outburst of anger and jealousy” after he found her with another man.

David Tran, 29, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday after he was found guilty of fatally stabbing Daiane Pelegrini in her Oatlands apartment in 2020.

The couple started dating earlier that year after they met at a massage parlour where Ms Pelegrini worked.

Justice Julia Lonergan noted “terms such as friendship, dating, or romance (do) not adequately reflect the complexity of the relationship” between the pair.

Daiane Pelegrini was killed by her ex-boyfriend David Tran in her apartment in 2020.

They messaged daily, and Tran regularly told Ms Pelegrini he loved her and that she was his first girlfriend.

However, the nursing student became angry with him when he turned up to her house uninvited on June 5, 2020.

“Don’t call me anymore. Finished,” she messaged him.

The couple rekindled their romance after Tran apologised, promised not to appear unannounced, and transferred her $1000.

Things turned sour when Ms Pelegrini realised he had been logging into her social media accounts for months.

The court heard Tran showed up uninvited at her house, gym, and even when she was on a holiday.

The mother-of-one repeatedly asked him to stop messaging her and “to leave her alone”, even going so far as to threaten to call the police.

“I’m done with you,” she told him.

Tran, undeterred, sent more than 60 sexually explicit messages to the 33-year-old over 10 hours.

“You have a problem,” she messaged him on WhatsApp.

“No is no and over is over.”

In the months before Ms Pelegrini’s death, she reported Tran had called her hundreds of times and sent hundreds of menacing messages.

He accused her of cheating on him multiple times, despite her repeated assertions they were no longer in a relationship.

Ms Pelegrini was at home with another man on August 3, 2020 when Tran broke in and unleashed a “vicious and prolonged attack”.

David Tran was sentenced to 28 years behind bars. Picture: Channel 10

He had broken into the house with the intention of hiding and intimidating the Brazilian national when she got home.

When she walked into her bedroom, Tran stabbed her more than 20 times in multiple areas of her body, including her head, breasts, and genitals.

One of the blows was so forceful that it penetrated the aged care worker’s skull, while another pierced her breast to puncture her lung.

Justice Lonergan said Tran had brutally murdered Ms Pelegrini in “an outburst of anger and jealousy”.

“He could not cope with her rejection of him and that she moved on with someone else and did not want to see him anymore,” she said.

“There is no doubt whatsoever that in stabbing Daiane repeatedly and viciously in that way and leaving her to bleed, the offender intended to kill her.”

Justice Lonergan said the “vicious and prolonged attack” had been “without mercy”, as Tran ignored his ex-girlfriend “begging him for help”.

The court heard the other man tried to pull Tran off his ex-girlfriend, but he was attacked and injured.

When they arrived, they found Ms Pelegrini alive amid “bloodsoaked walls and floor”. She later died in hospital.

She was remembered by family members as “a loving mother who made life fun, happy and secure” and a “determined, strong, brave, persistent and beautiful woman who is terribly missed”.

Ms Pelegrini was remembered as ‘beautiful and brave’. Picture: Facebook

Tran was apprehended and charged with murder, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, entering dwelling with intent, and using carriage service to menace.

The court heard he had attempted to fight the charges by arguing he was mentally impaired, but psychiatric evidence did not support his claim.

Justice Lonergan noted Tran has since been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but evidence had not proven that his mental illness was present at the time of the murder.

She sentenced him to a total of 28 years imprisonment with a minimum of 21 years behind bars.

Tran will be eligible for parole on February 2, 2042 when he is in his late 40s.