A US expert in forensic pathology has detailed injuries received by murder victim Nicholas Dill – including a stab in the back that broke his spine.

Dr. Valerie Rao travelled from Florida to give evidence at the Supreme Court as the last witness for the prosecution in the trial of the accused man, Andre Hypolite.

She examined the scene at the shack in Pearman's Hill, Warwick, where Mr. Dill, 44, lived with his girlfriend Stacey Pike, now 37.

Mr. Dill had died of what she described as "tremendous loss of blood" from multiple stab wounds.

Dr. Rao's autopsy led her to conclude that these were inflicted by a knife with a serrated blade, measuring eight to 12 inches in length.

"I recall the blood was just everywhere. On the bed, the wall, a place that looked like a little bathroom area.

"The entire scene was a very, very bloody scene. I could not tell where the initial events occurred because of the tremendous amount of blood there was," she told the jury on Friday.

The prosecution case against Hypolite is that he took drugs with Mr. Dill and Ms Pike at their home early on Boxing Day morning 2004.

He is alleged to have stabbed Mr. Dill in the back after Mr. Dill changed his mind about participating in a sex act with him.

It is further alleged that Hypolite chopped Ms Pike in the head when she tried to intervene by grabbing a machete. She said during her evidence last week that she subsequently hit him with the machete.

The accused man is said to have escaped through a window after the Police were called. He denies murder and wounding Ms Pike with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm.

The jury heard two taped Police interviews on Wednesday in which Hypolite told detectives he was attacked himself during the drug and sex session in which Mr. Dill died, and that he did not stab Mr. Dill or his girlfriend.

He told detectives that he got so frightened after "everyone went berserk" that he ended up escaping by jumping out of a window.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder and wounding Ms Pike with intent to do her grievous bodily harm.

Talking the jury through her autopsy findings with the aid of a slide-show, Dr. Rao detailed Mr. Dill's injuries as including a 6.5 centimetre wound to his back that fractured the spine and tenth rib.

Another stab wound to the back was 16.5 centimetres deep and travelled far enough to cause injuries to his spleen and bladder.

Dr. Rao said the person who inflicted these wounds would have had to have been "in a superior position" – holding the knife above the area stabbed.

She also listed:

¦ Cuts to the forehead, nose and left upper arm, likely to have been caused by a sharp blade such as a knife.

¦ Bleeding into the muscle on the left temple and also into the lining of the brain, likely to have been caused by "blunt trauma" like a punch.

¦ Cuts to the right upper arm

¦ "Defence type" injuries on the front of his right hand and right little finger, plus a cut to the middle finger on the left hand that cut the bone.

¦ A "gaping wound" on the back of his left hand that severed tendons and an artery and fractured a bone at the base of the wrist.

Dr. Rao also examined Ms Pike after the incident, reporting that she had cuts to her forehead and left upper arm and "defence wounds" to her hands.

In answer to questions from John Perry QC, Dr. Rao agreed that the head trauma suffered by Mr. Dill could have been caused by it striking a hard object, and not necessarily by a punch.

The case continues.