Sam Wood is likely to win bail at his third attempt, according to a prominent barrister, King’s Counsel (KC) and former judge.
Speaking exclusively to the Mail on the condition of anonymity, the KC said the former Bachelor star could be released when he appears in court on November 17.
By that stage, the 46-year-old will have spent more than six weeks behind bars, much of that time at overcrowded Wolston Correctional Centre, home to more than 900 maximum-security prisoners.
If released, however, Wood will return to a dramatically altered life: he will remain an accused man, separated from his wife and children, stripped of his business empire and facing widespread public condemnation.
The multi-millionaire fitness entrepreneur has been held in a prison unit for high-profile inmates since his first bail bid was rejected on October 8. He had been expected to walk free after a later hearing, but bail was refused again last week.
The KC said he was surprised Wood had not persuaded a judge on October 30 that any potential danger to the community, his estranged wife or his stepdaughter Eve could be controlled through strict bail conditions.
Those proposed conditions could include a ban on entering Victoria, where his family lives; access to only one mobile phone; restrictions on encrypted messaging services and social media; regular police reporting; a prohibition on alcohol and drugs; and random testing by police.
‘He has no criminal record, he has been successful in business and the likely sentence is an important consideration,’ the KC told the Mail.
Sam Wood is expected to leave prison facing a radically different future, with his businesses gone, his family estranged and strict conditions possibly including police reporting and an electronic ankle monitor
Snezana Wood was pictured without her wedding ring after the alleged choking incident and told Queensland Police she supported the decision to proceed with charges against Sam
‘If the period he would spend in custody without bail exceeds the sentence he might ultimately receive, that is a significant factor.
‘Does he present a risk to the public? I don’t believe he does. Is there a risk to the complainant? That can be addressed through stringent safeguards, including the proposed $1million surety and the other conditions.
‘I would expect him to be a strong candidate for bail at any time.’
The KC said Wood’s first application, heard in Maroochydore Local Court five days after his arrest, was always likely to fail.
Wood had not appeared either in person or by audiovisual link at the short hearing held two days after his arrest. During his first bail application on Thursday, October 8, he appeared on screen looking unkempt and hunched over in a prison-green sweatshirt, with his eyes lowered.
The court heard from police that Snezana did not object to charges being brought against her husband and that, during the alleged strangling, she ‘had thought she was going to die’.
In a recorded police interview, Snezana allegedly described being choked, struggling to breathe and striking her head on the floor.
At that hearing, prosecutors said Snezana had returned to Victoria with the children and was ‘in fear of retribution of the defendant’. Acting Magistrate Janelle Boegheim then refused Wood’s bail application.
Snezana and Sam Wood were photographed in 2018, before their marriage and the birth of their three young children
The KC said bail decisions had become ‘increasingly unusual’ in domestic violence cases, particularly high-profile matters, because magistrates feared an accused person might return to the complainant and cause fatal harm.
‘But in the Supreme Court, I have had a very strong success rate. A judge will not want a person to spend time on remand that could effectively become the beginning, or even the entirety, of a sentence if the eventual punishment is shorter.
‘When an application is unsuccessful, there may also be a right to appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal in NSW or the Queensland Court of Appeal, where success rates are around 50 per cent.’
‘If the earlier decision contains an error, it should be relatively straightforward to identify it.’
The Notice of Appeal seen by the Mail argues that Supreme Court Justice Patrick McCafferty made errors when he rejected Wood’s second bail application last week.
Wood’s legal team claims Justice McCafferty, who was sworn in as a Queensland Supreme Court judge less than a year ago, reached a decision that was ‘unreasonable or plainly unjust’.
The appeal argues that McCafferty, who also considered prosecutors’ concerns that Wood could ‘obstruct the course of justice [and] interfere with the witness’ Eve, failed to properly assess whether the proposed conditions, either separately or together, would reduce the risk of further offending.
The KC agreed that ‘too much weight may have been placed on one factor. If I had been sitting on the Supreme Court, I would have granted bail almost immediately. His public profile would not have concerned me.’
Stepdaughter Eve, pictured in Noosa before the alleged incident, called emergency services at 9.20pm, leading police to arrest Sam and take him to the watchhouse
Wood’s fitness brand, 28 by Sam Wood, has disappeared, with business partners removing his name from their websites
‘A successful bail application depends in part on concise, carefully prepared submissions being filed well before the hearing—focused, direct and without unnecessary material.’
If granted bail, Wood is expected to stay with his father, Andrew Wood, in Hobart. The Tasmanian city is where he grew up and where his father was a popular restaurant manager at Fish Frenzy, a waterfront seafood venue on the Elizabeth Street Pier.
Wood’s younger sister Hannah and brother Alex also live in Tasmania. His lawyers have indicated that he would remain there if released later this month.
Wood’s final hours of freedom came on the Saturday night before he was due to fly home, when he was arrested inside the $3,000-a-night La Mer resort in Noosa on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
He and Snezana, who met on the third season of The Bachelor Australia in 2015 and married in 2018, had been holidaying with their three young daughters.
They were joined in Noosa for the week by Eve Markoski-Wood, Wood’s 21-year-old stepdaughter, who was home from New York’s Parsons School of Design.
Before heading out for dinner, where he reportedly drank several beverages, Wood posted what would become his final public message through the private Facebook community for 28 by Sam Wood.
He had sold the fitness and training company to DBC Health in 2022 for $71million, but remained associated with the business as a paid ambassador and its public face.
Wolston Correctional Centre, where television personality Sam Wood is being held
Andrew Wood, second from right, attended his 2020 retirement celebration as Fish Frenzy’s Hobart restaurant manager and may house his son if the former Bachelor star is granted $1million bail
After describing the family’s school holiday activities, Wood wrote: ‘Sometimes you don’t realise how depleted your battery is until you connect it to a charger, and I was almost completely flat.
‘But I’m back, baby, and I can’t wait to see all of you more than ever from Monday.
‘I mean it. You’ll probably be sick of seeing me.’
That prediction was quickly overtaken by events. At about 9.20pm, Wood allegedly forced his wife to the floor and strangled her, prompting Eve to call Triple Zero. Paramedics and police were sent to the luxury apartment.
Officers handcuffed Wood and transported him 40km south in a police van to Maroochydore, the Sunshine Coast’s commercial centre.
He spent the next five days in a Maroochydore Watchhouse cell and did not attend the brief Monday hearing, either in person or through audiovisual link, when the charges were first mentioned.
The day after his arrest, Snezana and Sam released a joint statement titled ‘Statement from the Wood family’.
It said: ‘This is a difficult time for all of us, we are working through this as a family and are thoroughly co-operating with the authorities.’
Wood’s bail conditions are expected to prevent him from entering Victoria, where his estranged wife Snezana lives with their three daughters
The image of a seemingly perfect life with Snezana has ended, and any release on bail is expected to prevent Wood from approaching her or seeing their children
Published on both Instagram accounts, the message marked the couple’s last public show of unity. Wood’s own barrister told the court last week that the pair were ‘expected to separate’.
By then, Snezana had returned to Victoria with the children after providing Queensland Police with a video statement in which she supported the decision to pursue charges against her husband.
At the same time, the brand 28 by Sam Wood disappeared. DBG Health removed his name, briefly reverting the franchise to ’28’ before relaunching it under the name ‘evvr’.
His other venture, Ollo for Women, a 12-week menopause program promoted in a video featuring Wood exercising with middle-aged women, also stalled. His name was likewise taken off his Melbourne gym, The Woodshed.
On Thursday, October 8, Wood appeared by video from an audiovisual booth at the watchhouse in Maroochydore Magistrates Court. He faced charges of strangulation in a domestic setting and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
It was the last public glimpse of him before he disappeared into the prison system.
After the magistrate refused bail, Wood was taken by prison van that night to Brisbane Correctional Centre, 121km away.
Several days later, he was moved just 2.7km west to maximum-security Wolston Correctional Centre, part of the prison complex at Wacol, one of Queensland’s largest correctional precincts.
When Wood eventually leaves prison, the former television personality and fitness influencer will face an uncertain future after losing business and personal support
Wood is expected to have spent 46 days in custody by the time of his third bail application, most of them at Wolston Correctional Centre in Wacol, southwest of Brisbane
If the KC’s prediction proves correct and three Queensland Court of Criminal Appeal justices grant bail the week after next, Wood will emerge into a life almost unrecognisable from the one he knew before his arrest.
’28 by Sam Wood’ has vanished—apart from the coincidence that 28 is the number of days between his arrest and the failure of his second bail application.
By the time of his expected third attempt, the figure will be ’46 with Sam Wood’. If his barrister’s assessment is right, it could eventually become 365, reflecting a minimum 12-month sentence if he is convicted.
He may technically become a bachelor again, but life outside prison is likely to involve regular police reporting, the possibility of a satellite tracking anklet and no social calendar beyond quiet, alcohol-free family occasions.
Wood’s matter is not expected to reach a Queensland courtroom until late 2027 or early 2028.