Ellie Price murder trial: Young mother sent Nicki Minaj song Save Me to a friend before she was allegedly murdered by boyfriend Ricardo Barbaro

Minutes before young mother Ellie Price was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, the young mother sent a video clip titled “Save Me” to a friend.

Nicki Minaj’s song was played before a Supreme Court jury on Friday, as Ms Price’s friend Mark Gray testified about his relationship with her in the years leading up to her death.

Ms Price’s boyfriend, Ricardo Barbaro, is accused of killing the 26-year-old woman in a violent knife attack in which he allegedly slit her throat at her South Melbourne apartment in April 2020.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Mrs. Price’s friendship with Mr. Gray, an accountant who owns a brothel and who paid her expenses, including rent, plastic surgery and a $100,000 Mercedes Benz sports car, was central to the murder case.

She met Mr Gray while working as an exotic dancer at The Men’s Gallery in 2017 and over the years they developed a close friendship, the jury of 14 was told.

He agreed to give her a rental reference and then paid for Mrs Price and her young son to live in several Melbourne apartments, including paying six months’ rent in advance, nearly $5,000, for the Park Street apartment where she died .

Mr Gray said Ellie looked up to him as if he were ‘like her God’ but denied there had ever been any sexual relationship between them.

“It wasn’t a sugar daddy arrangement and it wasn’t a sexual relationship,” he told the jury.

When asked if he ever thought about starting a romantic relationship with Ms. Price, he replied ‘yes, but that was absolutely impossible’ as she had several mental health issues.

“So it stayed where it stayed, as friends,” he said.

Her then-boyfriend Ricardo Barbaro (pictured) is accused of murdering the 26-year-old.

Eight days before she was allegedly murdered, Mr Gray said Mrs Price had told him that her boyfriend Ricardo had tried to strangle her.

When he urged Ms. Price to report it to the police, she stormed off, he said.

That was the last time Mr Gray saw her in person, but the pair exchanged several text messages in the hours before her death.

“Why aren’t you sleeping,” he messaged Mrs. Price in the early hours of April 29.

“Stress :(. You?” she replied.

He told her that he often showed up late because his brothel business was open 24 hours a day.

The friend to whom Ms Price had sent the song, Mark Gray (pictured), arrived at court on Friday to testify about his and Ms Price’s relationship.

Ellie Price was found dead in her South Melbourne apartment in May 2020

She then sent her final message to Mr Gray at 3:57am, a music video of Nick Minaj’s song Save Me accompanied by ‘XX’.

Prosecutors allege that Barbaro stabbed Ms. Price to death shortly before 4:30 a.m. and then left her apartment in her Mercedes Benz.

Mr. Gray hit his head to the music as the song, accompanied by the lyrics, played on a courtroom monitor, “Won’t you save me this time… Baby, I feel like I’m giving up.”

At 4:33 a.m. he replied, “There is so much I don’t understand. I just hope you can fix it over time. xx’, but she never responded.

Police found Ms. Price’s body five days later on May 4, 2020, on the floor of her bedroom with six stab wounds.

The month-long trial before Judge Lex Lasry will continue on Monday.

Ricardo Barbaro (pictured arrested in May 2020) has pleaded not guilty to murder