Donna Vasyli pictured outside court in 2015.
DONNA Vasyli was said to be “overwhelmed with joy” after she was acquitted of murder last night in the retrial for the 2015 stabbing death of her millionaire podiatrist husband Philip Vasyli.
A Supreme Court jury found Mrs Vasyli not guilty after hearing arguments for about six months. A gag order was put in place preventing reporting of the retrial.
One of her attorneys, Damian Gomez, KC, said after the verdict that Mrs Vasyli has been “vindicated”.
Asked how his client was feeling after being found not guilty after years of legal wrangling, he said she is, “Overwhelmed with joy.”
According to Mr Gomez, no new evidence was introduced that led to yesterday’s outcome.
“No new evidence, just the weakness in the Crown’s case was deployed in a different way, there was no case against her,” Mr Gomez said.
The Court of Appeal quashed Mrs Vasyli’s conviction in 2017, though two appellate judges had ordered a retrial in the case. She was serving a 20-year sentence at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services before her conviction was overturned.
She appealed the matter before the country’s highest court, however in March 2020, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London ruled that she had a case to answer. However The Bahamas’ Court of Appeal was allowed to decide if a retrial would take place.
The Vasylis were married for 34 years and lived in the exclusive gated community of Old Fort Bay.
According to previous evidence, on March 23, 2015, Mr Vasyli fell down the stairs while drunk, cutting his back on glass from picture frames as he fell. Later that afternoon, the couple entertained three people: Myles Pritchard, Jody Pritchard and Mitchell Matthew. The Vasylis were left alone for about 45 minutes when the guests left. However, Mrs Vasyli left her home and went to her daughter’s house.
Early the next morning a gardener found Mr Vasyli on the floor of the kitchen at the Vasylis’ residence, dead with a stab wound to his neck. The kitchen gave way to a covered patio behind some patio doors. The gardener arrived by way of the patio where he found blood and a bloody kitchen knife. He opened the locked patio doors with his emergency key to get to the kitchen where he found Mr Vasyli.
It has been previously reported that the first officer on the scene found Mrs Vasyli in bed, shaking and crying.
Mrs Vasyli’s legal team included K D Knight, KC, Mr Gomez and Owen Wells.
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