Man and woman found guilty of murdering the woman's partner at South Yorkshire home

Sheffield Crown Court heard during a four-week trial how Indre Barysaite, aged 30, of Denman Street, Eastwood, Rotherham, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of her partner Zygimantas Kromelys after he was found by police lying wounded at their shared property on Denman Street, Eastwood, Rotherham.

Housemate Dimitrijus Jakimovas, aged 33, also of Denman Street, Eastwood, had also pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Kromelys, but a jury today, Thursday, December 31, found Barysaite and Jakimovas guilty of murder.

Police bodycam footage played during the trial showed officers and paramedics arriving at the property on Denman Street during the evening of November 10, 2019.

The footage showed Mr Kromelys lying on the kitchen floor in the arms of Barysaite who was in tears and Jakimovas was seen standing nearby.

Barysaite and Jakimovas, who speak Lithuanian, were led to the front room and Barysaite was told to come away from blood in front of a sofa before she crouched down in tears, according to the footage.

Barysaite had originally claimed to police someone had come to the property and stabbed her partner and she had seen two men running down the street before her partner went to the kitchen and fell, and Jakimovas told police he had been in the kitchen at the time.

But Barysaite later claimed her partner appeared to have stabbed himself to death at their home after Mr Kromelys and Jakimovas had been drinking and after Mr Kromelys had had a dispute with two visitors about a debt.

Barysaite claimed Mr Kromelys’s mood deteriorated and he sat in the sitting room hiding a knife before coming into the kitchen and striking himself in the chest.

She admitted she lied to police that two other men were responsible for the killing because she claimed she was concerned because Mr Kromelys comes from a Catholic family and she wanted to spare them any shame.

As Jakimovas compressed the wound with a towel, according to Barysaite, she said she made calls to Lithuanian associates because she said she cannot speak English and did not know the 999 number.

The court heard Barysaite had a history of self-harming after her daughter died, and after she and Mr Kromelys met she learned he was self-harming and had an alcohol problem.

She claimed she once caught him trying to drink acid, had once caught him trying to hang himself, and once found a blood-stained note before finding him trying to cut his veins and chest.

Jakimovas had told the trial he realised 26-year-old Mr Kromelys was injured when he fell and he claimed he grabbed something to cover his wound.

He claimed neither he nor Barysaite had stabbed Mr Kromelys and he later started to think Mr Kromelys had stabbed himself, but both Barysaite and Jakimovas were found guilty of murder by majority verdicts.

Mr Justice Nicholas Lavender is due to sentence Barysaite and Jakimovas later today, December 31.

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