A woman looking to rent a room with her mate was brutally butchered by him in a drug-fuelled frenzy, a jury has heard.
Autumn Baker, 40, of Darley – about 60km north-west of Melbourne – was allegedly murdered by Mark Graham Ludbrook on August 3, 2023.
In opening the Supreme Court of Victoria murder trial on Monday, Crown prosecutor Jim Shaw guided the jury through the final moments of Ms Baker’s life.
The court heard Ms Baker had been friends with Ludbrook when she made the fateful call to visit the Hoppers Crossing home where he had offered her accommodation.
The jury was shown graphic body-worn camera footage captured by an officer who attended the bloody scene.
The footage showed Ms Baker’s blood-soaked body on the floor of Ludbrook’s bedroom, with a steak knife resting on her chest.
The jury heard Ms Baker had fought for her life, with stab wounds to both arms and hands.
She had sustained multiple stab wounds to her chest, with both of her eyes targeted by the alleged killer.
Mark Graham Ludbrook at the Supreme Court of Victoria where he is defending allegations he murdered his friend Autumn Baker
The court heard Ludbrook suffered from a rare condition known as Transverse Myelitis – a neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord – and had been confined to a wheelchair leading up to the alleged murder.
But on the day of the attack, Ludbrook’s carer noted he was up and about on his feet and his behaviour was unusual.
Ludbrook had stripped naked and was ranting incoherently in his backyard when Ms Baker knocked on the door, Mr Shaw said.
The court heard the two concerned women discussed what they ought to do when Ludbrook went to the kitchen and pulled open the cutlery drawer.
Confronted by his carer, Ludbrook took a steak knife out and took it back to his bedroom where he began stabbing himself in the stomach, the court was told.
When his carer and Ms Baker tried to intervene, Ludbrook is accused of lashing out.
The jury heard he turned on Ms Baker as his carer fled the bedroom to call police.
‘(She) heard Ms Baker scream and (when) she went back into the accused’s bedroom, she could only get part of the way in,’ Mr Shaw told the court.
‘Autumn Baker was on the floor, on her back – flat on her back. The accused was standing over her … stabbing Ms Baker with the steak knife.’
Autumn Baker had been friends with Ludbrook
Mark Ludbrook arrives at court for the opening of his murder trial on Monday
When Ludbrook’s carer again tried to intervene he thrust at her with the knife, forcing her to retreat, the court was told.
‘(She) asked the operator to send emergency services and while she was on this call – she was still just right outside the bedroom door – she could hear Autumn Baker screaming for help,’ Mr Shaw said.
Moments later Ludbrook emerged from his room, still naked and covered in blood, the jury heard.
‘(His carer) saw that and ran out of the house to get away from him,’ Mr Shaw said.
‘The accused followed her into the backyard – again talking irrationally, things that didn’t make sense.’
The court heard she ran for her life, but returned through the front door to find Ms Baker covered in blood and unresponsive.
When police arrived, Ludbrook was seen covered in blood, dashing from his bedroom through the house and into the backyard, where he was arrested.
Mr Shaw said a search of Ludbrook’s house turned up bags of white powder later identified as an illicit drug named PCE – a dissociative anaesthetic with hallucinogenic effects.
Autumn Baker had tried to assist Ludbrook when he turned on her, the court heard
The jury heard Autumn Baker was brutally stabbed to death in what prosecutors argue was cold-blooded murder
Police allege Ludbrook had been using the drug to help with pain relief.
Mr Shaw said Ludbrook knew what he was doing when he repeatedly plunged the steak knife into Ms Baker.
‘Blood and urine samples were collected from him at the hospital and … they show that the accused had ketamine and the other drug I told you about, PCE, in his system,’ he said.
‘And the quantities suggest he had it in his system at the time of this incident.’
While most of the ketamine was likely administered by paramedics at the scene, Mr Shaw said the PCE was taken by him voluntarily on the morning of the attack.
In offering a brief defence, Ludbrook’s barrister Emily Clark described the attack as a ‘terrible tragedy’.
She told the jury most of what happened that day was not in dispute, admitting Ludbrook had stabbed Ms Baker to death.
However, Ms Clark claimed Ludbrook was out of control when he killed his friend and therefore could not be found guilty of either murder or manslaughter.
Autumn Baker was brutally stabbed to death with a steak knife, the court heard
Ms Clark said the prosecution needed to prove Ludbrook’s state of mind at the time of the killing was that he intended to kill Ms Baker.
‘It is absolutely not agreed that he intended to kill Ms Baker or cause her really serious injury or that he knew that was a probable result of his actions,’ she said.
‘The question for you is not a moral or ethical one about why he took an illegal drug, whether that was the right thing to do.
‘The question is whether at the time he did those acts that caused the death of Ms Baker, he was doing that consciously, voluntarily and deliberately.
‘Or was he so affected by the PCE that he wasn’t capable of acting and thinking in that way?
‘That’s the question you need to answer.’
The jury heard at the conclusion of the prosecution case, the defence would call forensic psychiatrists to back their claims.
The trial continues.
