Trial begins for Emil ‘Bill’ Petrov accused of killing wife Cindy Crossthwaite amid property disagreement

A mother-of-three shot dead in the entryway of her home was allegedly locked in a disagreement with her husband over property, a court has been told. Cindy Crossthwaite, 41, was found covered by a blanket near the front door of her Melton South home on June 20, 2007, as her father let himself into the property. Her ex-husband Emil ‘Bill’ Petrov is now facing trial in Victoria’s Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to murder. Beginning on Tuesday and continuing into Wednesday, crown prosecutor Mark Gibson KC laid out the case against Mr Petrov, alleging he murdered Ms Crossthwaite or, alternatively, arranged for an unknown person to kill her. The jury was told the couple separated in mid-2005 after about nine years of marriage, with Mr Petrov moving back into his parent’s Footscray home while Ms Crossthwaite retained care for their two children. Mr Gibson said less than a month before Ms Crossthwaite was allegedly beaten and shot in the head, the pair had disagreements about their assets with Mr Petrov and his parents potentially standing to “lose a substantial amount of money”. He said there had also been a police investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Mr Petrov’s father, Ljubisa Petrov, which police concluded without laying charges three weeks after her death. “Bill Petrov believed Cindy Crossthwaite had orchestrated these false claims,” Mr Gibson said. “There will be evidence that because of Bill Petrov’s belief, he wanted to get rid of Cindy for having done this.” Prosecutors allege Mr Petrov asked a close friend of his, Brian O’Shea, to source a gun for him about eight months before his wife was found dead. Mr Gibson told the jury he expects Mr O’Shea to give evidence that Mr Petrov allegedly visited him sometime in April or May 2007 and said he was going to kill his wife. “I’m going to kill that c--t Cindy. I’m going to take a week off work and I’m going to kill her. Will you help me?” he allegedly said. On the day Ms Crossthwaite was killed, the jury was told, Mr Petrov was allegedly spotted at the Melton Shopping Centre, a short distance from her home, by a friend of hers. Mr Gibson said she dropped her two eldest children off at school about 9am before returning home. A friend of hers, Kerryn Wilkie, tried to visit at 11.20am but despite her car being in the car port and hearing the TV was on, there was no answer at the door or on the phone, he said. Mr Gibson said it was the prosecution case Ms Wilkie tried again to visit at 2pm — noticing no change to the front of her house — and later got in contact with Ms Crossthwaite’s father, Philip, who made the gruesome discovery about 4pm. The jury was told it was the prosecution case Mr Petrov had taken the week off work, but was spotted visiting his worksite to speak to the supervisor about 11am. He was arrested at the Powell Hotel in Footscray later the same day and “totally denied” killing Ms Crossthwaite, Mr Gibson said. Responding to the allegations, Mr Petrov’s barrister Ashley Halphen said his client “absolutely denies criminal responsibility for the death of Cindy Crossthwaite either by acting alone or by agreement with an unknown person”. He said his client denies he even knew where she was living around the time she was killed, or was in the area including the Melton Shopping Centre. Mr Halphen told the jury they would need to consider the actual extent of the couple’s property dispute and whether others may have motive for Ms Crossthwaite’s death. The defence barrister said much of the evidence expected to come from Brian O’Shea would be “heavily disputed”. “You will need to consider how much better informed Mr O’Shea is than he has been in the past and you’ll need to consider why that is so,” he said. “You'll need to grapple with this question, that is, whether he is a witness of truth or are there things personal to him going on in his world that impact the submission he be treated as an honest and reliable witness.” He urged the jury to keep an open mind and said at the conclusion of the trial he would make the argument that the jury could not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt Mr Petrov murdered his wife. “We will provide good reasons for this being so and why the true and proper verdict should be not guilty,” he said. The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, continues.