A former soldier accused of murdering his wife in South Australia's Yorke Peninsula has been ordered to stand trial after losing a bid to have the case against him thrown out.
Antony Ogar, 59, was charged with murder of his 37-year-old wife Cherry Gerente Ogar last year in her Port Hughes house.
Mr Ogar asked Adelaide Magistrates Court to throw out the charge, with his lawyer telling the court that the prosecution case was boxing at shadows. Magistrate Michelle Sutcliffe found substantive matters and a case to answer, ordering him to stand trial in the Supreme Court.
Mr Ogar has pleaded not guilty to Ms Ogar's murder.
Magistrate Sutcliffe suppressed most of the arguments made during the no-case to-answer hearing on the grounds that it would prejudice Mr Ogar's right to a fair trial.
Mr Ogar's lawyer Martin Anders told the court during the hearing that it was not possible to determine the exact originating event of injury. This is not a case where a weapon has been discharged or a knife has been applied, according to Mr Anders.
It is not pointing towards a deliberate infliction of injury, quite the reverse.
The possibility of accidental injury is wide open, because it's leaving the possibility of accidental injury. Mr Anders said that the prosecution case was relying on less qualified medical witnesses, including nurses and ambulance officers, and asked the court to find their evidence inadmissible. But prosecutor Darren Evans told the court there would still be a case to answer even if all the medical evidence was struck out.
Mr Evans told the court that there were no injuries to the back of Ms Ogar's head to suggest she had fallen backwards.
He said that we have two people and only two people in a house.
One is fine and the other has a catastrophic brain injury.
There are circumstances that provide a case to answer.
It would be easy to infer that the defendant, the only other person in the house, caused that injury with the requisite intent and that injury led to the death. Mr Evans told the court that there was no evidence that Ms Ogar was intoxicated, but Mr Anders said it was not possible to rule out that she was drunk at the time of her death.
If someone had five glasses of wine the night before, as per the applicant's narrative, what's it mean that there was no alcohol visible in blood taken just before midday the following day, Mr Anders told the court.
There are many empty bottles of alcohol in the house.
The evidence shows that the deceased enjoyed a drink. When Mr Ogar is expected to apply for a modification to his bail conditions, the matter returns to court on Friday.
Mr Ogar, who was previously heard to be a decorated member of the Australian Defence Force, is allowed weekly to visit a hardware store to build a house as part of his bail agreement as well as a church service on Sundays.
Under his bail conditions, Mr Ogar has been banned from having any contact with Ms Ogar's daughter.