‘While Ivona was dying, you ran away’: Ex-boyfriend grilled over shooting death

On the final day of a coronial inquest into the shooting death of a young woman, her ex-boyfriend – who fled the scene – said he could not remember much as methamphetamine made his “memory quite blurry”.

Christos Panagakos and Ivona Jovanovic.

The ex-boyfriend of a Gold Coast influencer who was fatally shot inside his home has been grilled on the stand about his memory of the night, his decision to flee the scene and leave his dying former partner with his mother, and his refusal to tell police who else was there.

But on the final day of the coronial inquest, one of the main witnesses was heavily reliant on what he told police at the time and could not remember specific details, citing his regular use of methamphetamine making his “memory quite blurry”.

Serbian-born influencer Ivona Jovanovic, 27, was fatally shot in the chest inside her ex-boyfriend’s family home on Renfrew Ave in the Gold Coast suburb of Highland Park on September 8, 2019. She died that night in Gold Coast University Hospital.

Christos Panagakos.

Her former partner — 32-year-old bodybuilder Christos Panagakos, who previously had ties to the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang — was charged with her manslaughter, but the charge was dropped in March last year following a committal hearing in court.

Mr Panagakos has always denied the allegations.

A three-day coronial inquest this week in Brisbane, overseen by Coroner Donald MacKenzie, has been investigating the circumstances of Ms Jovanovic’s death.

Christos Panagakos took the stand on Wednesday. He openly admitted that “my memory is quite blurry” because he had used methamphetamine throughout the day.

Counsel Assisting the Coroner Kim Bryson referred to a statement Mr Panagakos gave to investigating police in the aftermath of Ms Jovanovic’s death.

“We all walked up the stairs, I ran back down because I kept forgetting things like my jumper and this and that, and then they were all upstairs waiting for me,” it read.

Gold Coast influencer Ivona Jovanovic. Picture: Instagram

“I was the last one getting up the stairs. I was either upstairs or very close [when he heard a loud ‘bang’]. I heard [Ivona say] something like ‘I’ve been hit or shot’.

“She was standing up in the kitchen and then she hit the floor. I just said: ‘Show me, where is it? Where have you been shot?’

“She pulled it [her clothing] up and I realised she had actually been shot. She wasn’t speaking, just making gargling sounds.”

Ms Bryson bluntly asked Mr Panagakos on the stand on Wednesday: “While Ivona was dying upstairs, you ran away?”

“Eventually,” Mr Panagakos conceded, adding that he couldn’t remember whether the paramedics had arrived when he decided to flee.

In later interviews with detectives, the investigating officers pressed Mr Panagakos to tell them the names of the other men who were at the house that day.

“It’s just the way I am, I don’t give any people up or anything like that,” Mr Panagakos told police at the time.

Police at the murder scene at Renfrew Drive, Highland Park. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Mr Panagakos told the inquest on Tuesday that he was not asserting that one of the other men – now identified as his friends Daine Walker and Brendon Elliott – shot Ms Jovanovic.

A crucial piece of evidence before the inquest this week has been a video Mr Panagakos filmed on his phone in his garage.

The video shows a man, whose body has been painted in black, lying on the floor with two handguns tucked into his shorts. One of those handguns is a long-barrelled revolver – which matches the description from witnesses of the firearm believed to have killed Ms Jovanovic.

“They are fake guns … it was a joke, it was funny.” Mr Panagakos testified on Tuesday.

“I wouldn’t have had real firearms and been putting them in a video and messing with them.”

Ms Bryson pressed Mr Panagakos, who admitted to being under the influence of GHB and methamphetamine at the time of making the video.

“Are you able to say with any certainty they weren’t real and that you didn’t try to fire a projectile from them?” she asked the witness.

“I can’t say for sure, maybe I did, I just recall that they are not real,” Mr Panagakos.

Coroner Donald MacKenzie also questioned Mr Panagakos at this point.

“You’ve already mentioned that you can’t recall many details from [the day Ms Jovanovic died] because you were under the influence of methamphetamine, but you seem to be very clear about the details of what took place in the making of the video, yet you were also under the influence of methamphetamine then as well?” the Coroner queried.

“All I’m clarifying is that I thought they were fake firearms … but I can’t be absolutely certain,” Mr Panagakos told the inquest.

Ivona Jovanovic. Picture: Instagram

Ivona Jovanovic. Picture: Facebook

Solicitor Dylan Kerr – representing Ms Jovanovic’s family – also expressed his scepticism of Mr Panagakos’s account.

“I suggest that a number of witnesses in this inquest have conveniently had memory loss due to consuming ice [methamphetamine] and it appears you are another one of these witnesses. I suggest it is not believable that you were on ice at the time?” he questioned.

“I reject that,” Mr Panagakos responded.

“I suggest that it is hard to believe that you had no knowledge of where the gun came from, who owned it and why it was loaded. Do you accept that?” Mr Kerr followed up with.

“Yes,” Mr Panagakos conceded.

The Coroner referred to a detailed account given by Daine Walker while he was imprisoned for assault in NSW in May 2021, about the night Ms Jovanovic died.

Mr Walker said that when he ran back into the house after hearing two bangs, Mr Panagakos said: “I tripped and it just went off … I didn’t mean it, I was coming up the stairs.”

The Coroner put the allegations to Mr Panagakos bluntly on Wednesday.

“I suggest to you that that is exactly what happened, what he said – this was an accident, you were in charge of a weapon, it discharged accidentally, and you killed Ivona?”

“No, I don’t agree with that … I would remember it, it didn’t happen,” Mr Panagakos replied.

The inquest was adjourned until a date to be fixed.

Originally published as ‘While Ivona was dying, you ran away’: Ex-boyfriend grilled over shooting death