Ex-husband lay in wait with hammer and knife, Crown alleges

An ex-husband's hammer attack caused "catastrophic" head injuries which immediately killed his wife's new partner, the Crown told the first day of a murder trial.

The victim, Faiz Ali, had 23 wounds and injuries to his head. Some of the blows "essentially caved in his skull", Crown prosecutor John Whitcombe told the trial in the High Court at Christchurch.

Two were stab wounds from a knife, but the rest were blunt force injuries - allegedly from the hammer - which fractured his skull, and jaw, and fatally damaged his brain, Whitcombe told Justice Rob Osborne and the jury.

Ali also had 15 other injuries to his body including wounds to his right hand, likely inflicted when he tried to fend off the attack by someone who was waiting inside his apartment when arrived home.

The Crown says the attacker was Niraj Nilesh Prasad, who was arrested later on the evening of the attack, February 21, 2022. Prasad told the police that he had gone to the apartment intending to get a photograph of Ali and his ex-wife, but the men had fought and Ali had used a green-handled knife. Prasad was found to have a small bruise on his body, and the knife was not found.

Faiz Ali, a manager at Indian grocery store Krazy Price Mart, who was killed on February 21, 2021. Photo/supplied

Justice Osborne said the jurors' inevitable reaction would be that they would find the evidence of the hammer attack distressing. He urged them to "recognise" the reaction, but to focus on the detail of the evidence and assess it clinically.

Prasad, 39, denies the charge of murdering Fijian-born Ali in the alleged hammer attack on February 21, 2021.

Barnaby Hawes and Whitcombe appear for the Crown; James Rapley QC and Ben Walker appear for Prasad. The trial, before Justice Rob Osborne and a jury, is expected to take up to two weeks.

The Crown will call 27 witnesses, including 12 police witnesses, one Environmental Science and Research scientist, a doctor, and a pathologist.

The Crown said Ali was on the phone to Prasad's ex-wife when he arrived at his apartment and found Prasad inside, armed with a knife and a hammer. The ex-wife heard screaming on the phone, and then silence.

When she went to the apartment, she saw a gloved hand, covered in blood, holding the sliding door closed. She then went to the police.

Neighbours would say they later saw Prasad outside, covered in blood. He told one of them: "I won't harm you. That man was having an affair with my wife."

Whitcombe said the marriage had broken up in 2020 and Prasad was seen as upset and frustrated. He became brooding and appeared distracted, posting some abusive Facebook messages. He told one witness he was going to do "something big".

The trial is continuing.