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Last Modified On:November 21, 2018
Last year’s manslaughter case at a Melbourne hospital gets unlocked after a man named Joseph Esmaili witnesses to be guilty.
After a four-week trial, Joseph Esmaili has been found guilty of punching a surgeon to his death at a hospital. Joseph Esmaili, age 24, punched the heart surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann in the head.
It all occurred during an argument in the foyer of the hospital in May 2017. The 41-year-old heart surgeon fell backward when the man knocked him unconscious. Meanwhile, the doctor hit his head on the tiled floor eventually dying a months later.
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Who is Joseph Esmaili?
The man named ‘Joseph Esmaili’ covered the media with the news of being guilty of manslaughter. Despite the news, there is no information on who and where Joseph Esmaili is from.
Since he is neither a celebrity nor a television personality, Joseph is a common man. Besides, both the families of Mr. Pritzwald-Stegmann and Esmaili appeared on court. They did not react to the verdict when read out loud.
Remanded in custody, Esmaili will return to court in March for a plea hearing.
What happened between Joseph Esmaili and Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann?
At the Victorian Supreme Court trial, It was revealed that the pair had an argument. Mr. Pritzwald-Stegmann asked Joseph Esmaili and his friends to stop smoking in a non-smoking area outside the hospital.
The jury watched the CCTV which showed the moment from arguing men to the punch attack. Throughout the trial, John Desmond, defense barrister proclaimed that Joseph acted in a self-defense when he threw a punch to the surgeon.
Mr. Desmond interrogated,
“Why is [Mr] Pritzwald-Stegmann freeing up his hands at that point?
“At the very least … it would be a reasonable inference on Esmaili’s part that the doctor’s about to punch him.”
However, Brendan Kissane QC, prosecutor, discussed that the surgeon had done anything to show that he was going to attack the man. The prosecutor said,
“We accept that he didn’t back down, but … that doesn’t excuse what effectively was an attack on him. When [Esmaili] decided to throw the punch … there was no threat to the welfare of the accused man.”
Arrest, Defense, and Cause of death;
After punching the surgeon, Joseph fled from the hospital and told his friends that they “needed to leave because he had just hit someone”.
When his father saw the news about the incident, he contacted the police eventually arresting him the following day.
In the police interview, played to the jury, Joseph Esmaili confessed to the detectives:
“I wasn’t trying to hit him hard, I shouldn’t have hit him in the first place, I know.”
On the other hand, Mr. Desmond, defense barrister, argued that what caused Mr. Pritzwald-Stegmann’s death was his family’s decision to withdraw his life support. Revealing to the court, he said,
“It was a deliberate decision made by collective medicos in conjunction with his wife … to withdraw medical treatment and facilitate death,”
He also said that Joseph’s punch only caused a serious injury but the decision to withdraw the life support was made by the heart surgeon’s family.
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