A man allegedly murdered a mom of two that he was dating before bringing his mother to the murder scene for help moving the body, a prosecutor claimed in court.

Paul Jason Sultana, 34, is on trial for the January 18, 2023 murder of 28-year-old Dayna Isaac,
according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Isaac was found deceased in her Sydney, Australia apartment with two cords around her neck and a broken nose, according to Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph. Her body had also reportedly been “sexually penetrated.”

Sultana is accused of strangling her amid concerns that their relationship was souring. According to reporting by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2023, Acting Superintendent Carlene Mahoney alleged that the two had been longtime friends and had “recently become more intimate.”

While the defendant pleaded not guilty, Crown Prosecutor Yvette Prowse told the NSW Supreme Court on Monday, July 14,  that Sultana had unsuccessfully tried to reach out to a friend and his brother for help moving Isaac’s body before turning to his mother, “who lived very close to the deceased.”

He allegedly “picked up his mother in the deceased’s car, not telling her what was wrong, but repeatedly saying, ‘It’s bad, it’s bad,’ ” Prowse said. “He then took his mother to the deceased’s apartment, but as soon as his mother saw the dead body of Ms Isaac, she turned around and left.”

Per The Daily Telegraph, his mother Janet Tsiliris went to the police to report what she saw.

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After Tsiliris left, Prowse alleged that Sultana drove Isaac’s car to a nearby area before lighting it on fire. After biking home, he allegedly burned additional items in the backyard, perThe Sydney Morning Herald.

Sultana allegedly told Isaac’s father that he didn’t know where she was when he reached out. He is said to have texted his brother that he would be getting arrested.

He denied committing the murder when he was found by authorities.

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The Sydney Morning Herald reported that three women would be giving testimony during the trial, accusing Sultana of “physical and verbal violence.”

Prowse told the court that the testimony “demonstrates that evidence is capable of demonstrating a tendency by the accused to respond with violence, effectively when he feels the relationship is ending or when he’s feeling rejected.”

The outlet reported that Sultana’s lawyer Gregory Woods claimed his client was innocent and that someone else “must have been on the premises”  to commit the murder.

While there are no witnesses to the alleged crime, Prowse alleged that there was DNA evidence linking Sultana to Isaac. A neighbor also reported “hearing screaming and banging” from Isaac’s apartment.

After “it all went quiet,” the neighbor alleged that they saw a man leave the apartment and later return with “an older woman.”

The Sydney Morning Herald also reported that Sultana has been accused of confessing to the crime while in custody. He allegedly told someone that he wanted to tie Isaac up “and make her regret f—ing him over, but ultimately killed her.”

Addressing all of his behavior, Woods alleged that his client was simply reacting out of “panic caused by fear.”

The attorney said Sultana’s actions were due to the “unhappy history of several failed romances.”

“Now this is all consistent … with a man who believed that he might be blamed in these circumstances because he had previously been accused of bad behavior by ex-girlfriends,” Woods said of his client.

He added, “That is, he panicked, not because he had killed Dayna, but because he believed he would very likely be the target of misdirected police charges. We say that’s an interpretation which will flow from the evidence.”