David Tran jailed for 28 years for viciously stabbing young mother Daiane Pelegrini to death in an outburst of ‘anger and jealousy’

A man has been jailed for 28 years for brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend in ‘an outburst of anger and jealousy’ after finding her with another man.

David Tran, 29, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday after being found guilty of fatally stabbing Daiane Pelegrini at her Oatlands apartment in 2020.

The couple started dating earlier that year after meeting at a massage parlor where Ms Pelegrini worked.

Judge Julia Lonergan noted that “terms such as friendship, dating or romance (do not) adequately reflect the complexity of the couple’s relationship.”

They messaged daily, and Tran regularly told Ms. Pelegrini that he loved her and that she was his first girlfriend.

However, the nursing student became angry with him when he showed up at her home uninvited on June 5, 2020.

‘Don’t call me again. Done,” she messaged him.

The couple rekindled their romance after Tran apologized, promised not to show up unannounced and wired her $1,000.

Things turned sour when Ms. Pelegrini realized he had been logging into her social media accounts for months.

The court heard Tran showed up uninvited at her home, at the gym and even when she was on holiday.

The mother of one repeatedly asked him to stop messaging her and to “leave her alone,” even going so far as to threaten to call the police.

“I’m done with you,” she told him.

Undeterred, Tran sent more than 60 sexually explicit messages to the 33-year-old in ten hours.

“You have a problem,” she messaged him via WhatsApp.

‘No means no and it’s over.’

In the months before Ms. Pelegrini’s death, she reported that Tran had called her hundreds of times and sent hundreds of threatening messages.

He accused her of cheating on him multiple times, despite her repeated claims that they were no longer in a relationship.

Ms Pelegrini was at home with another man on August 3, 2020 when Tran broke in and unleashed a “vicious and prolonged attack”.

He had broken into the house with the intention of hiding and intimidating the Brazilian national when she returned home.

When she entered her bedroom, Tran stabbed her more than 20 times in multiple parts of her body, including her head, breasts and genitals.

One of the blows was so powerful that it penetrated the elderly caregiver’s skull, while another pierced her chest to puncture her lung.

Judge Lonergan said Tran brutally murdered Ms Pelegrini in ‘an outburst of anger and jealousy’.

“He couldn’t handle the fact that she rejected him and that she moved on with someone else and didn’t want to see him anymore,” she said.

‘There is no doubt whatsoever that by repeatedly and viciously stabbing Daiane in that manner and causing her to bleed, the perpetrator intended to kill her.’

Judge Lonergan said the ‘vicious and prolonged attack’ had been ‘without mercy’ as Tran ignored his ex-girlfriend ‘who begged him for help’.

The court heard the other man tried to pull Tran off his ex-girlfriend but he was attacked and injured.

When they arrived, they found Ms. Pelegrini alive among “blood-soaked walls and floors.” She later died in hospital.

She was remembered by family members as “a loving mother who made life fun, happy and safe” and a “determinate, strong, courageous, persistent and beautiful woman who is terribly missed.”

Tran was arrested and charged with murder, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, entering a home with intent and using carriage services to make a threat.

The court heard he had tried to fight the charge by claiming he was mentally disabled, but psychiatric evidence did not support his claim.

Judge Lonergan noted that Tran has since been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but it has not been proven that his mental illness was present at the time of the murder.

She sentenced him to a total of 28 years in prison, with a minimum of 21 years behind bars.

Tran will be eligible for parole on February 2, 2042, when he is in his late 40s.