Jethro Gamueda, now 31, and his partner Summer Fleming were heard arguing at his family home in the NSW Hunter region on August 17, 2025 hours before she died the following day.
The 20-year-old could not be revived by emergency services who found her in the Rutherford household lying face down on the floor with her legs up on the bed.
Gamueda, who has been charged with murder, made a bail application at the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.
His barrister Claire O'Neill argued that the case against her client was not strong.
Dr Allen Cala, the forensic pathologist who conducted Ms Fleming's autopsy, left open the possibility that the cause of death was accidental asphyxiation, Ms O'Neill told the court.
She said the doctor could not say whether Ms Fleming was alive or dead in two photographs taken by Gamueda around 10pm that night showing the young woman lying partly off the bed.
The Rutherford man called triple zero about 4.30am the following day.
The 31-year-old told police he had taken the pictures to show his partner in the morning.
Ms O'Neill argued there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that her client had held Ms Fleming down in a chokehold and suffocated her.
However, Justice Nicholas Chen rejected this, refusing to grant bail.
He noted that despite some caveats, Dr Cala said the young woman was unlikely to have been alive at the time the photographs were taken, as she had blue lips and her eyes were closed.
The doctor also questioned how a woman who was healthy, sober and unaffected by drugs could have accidentally fallen off the bed, and have been unable to extricate herself from her highly abnormal position.
"My assessment is that this is a reasonable crown case," the judge said.
Ms Fleming was found with facial haemorrhages, abrasions on her forehead and eyebrow, significant bruising on her buttocks and bruising on her back.
Crown prosecutor Kristy Mulley said the 20-year-old had sent selfies of herself crying to her sister and friend hours before the attack.
She had also looked for somewhere else to stay.
While Ms Fleming had tried to break up with Gamueda prior to her death, he had threatened self-harm and the couple had stayed together, Ms Mulley said.
His family heard them arguing in the hours before she was found deceased and neighbours heard a woman scream, the court heard.
"How do I break up with a female narcissist," Gamueda asked his AI assistant around an hour before he allegedly murdered her.
He has not yet entered a plea and his case will come before Newcastle Local Court on May 6.
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