An accused killer has lost his bid to have the case against him thrown out, with a magistrate instead committing him to stand trial over a young woman’s murder.
Marat Ganiev, 53, listened through a Russian interpreter from prison as magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz handed down her decision in Melbourne on Friday.
Prosecutors allege Ganiev killed Isla Bell on 7 October 2024, three days after the 19-year-old was last seen leaving her Brunswick home in Melbourne’s north.
It’s alleged he then spent two days cleaning his home before co-accused Eyal Yaffe came over towing a trailer carrying a black fridge.
The pair was allegedly seen removing a different fridge wrapped in plastic onto the back of the trailer on 17 October.
Yaffe is accused of driving the fridge to a Caulfield South address, while police say Ganiev then moved the appliance multiple times over two weeks.
Ganiev allegedly left the fridge concealed behind other items in a removalist van on 30 October, with another resident locating the appliance on 18 November.
The man found a bag inside after smelling a foul odour and threw it in the bin, believing it was a dead animal.
Ms Bell’s remains were discovered in the Dandenong rubbish facility the next day.
At a committal hearing earlier in October, Ganiev’s barrister Sally Flynn KC argued the prosecution’s case against her client was entirely circumstantial.
She urged the magistrate to throw out the case, saying the police could not prove the 53-year-old caused Ms Bell’s death and it could not be excluded that Ms Bell died from a drug overdose.
She pointed to evidence from forensic experts, who outlined the drugs including methadone, MDMA and cannabis that were in Ms Bell’s system.
It also could not be excluded that the multiple fractures to Ms Bell’s skull and ribs were caused by the rubbish truck compactor after her death, Ms Flynn added.
Ms Mykytowycz on Friday accepted the case against Yaffe was circumstantial, as the evidence could not prove how or when exactly Ms Bell died.
There was also no direct evidence that Ganiev had an intention to kill or cause really serious injury, nor was there an identifiable motive, the magistrate accepted.
But Ganiev’s actions after the alleged murder could be considered incriminating conduct and put before a jury, Ms Mykytowycz said.
The magistrate ruled it should also be left to jurors to consider the alternative theory that Ms Bell died from an overdose.
She determined there was sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial in the Victorian Supreme Court.
Ganiev was then committed to the higher court after formally pleading not guilty to the murder of Ms Bell.
Ms Mykytowycz also committed Yaffe to trial on the charges of assisting an offender and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Yaffe’s barrister Ian Hill KC had pushed for the charges to be withdrawn against his client, saying he did not know or hold the belief that Ganiev had killed Ms Bell, nor did he know her remains were inside the fridge.
But the magistrate found those questions should be left to a jury to decide.
Yaffe also entered not guilty pleas, with both men to face a pre-trial directions hearing in the Supreme Court on 18 November.
