Murder trial hears of distinctive stickers
An Ashburton print-shop owner has told of making stickers for a tall man in black clothing, riding a mountainbike, and has identified one of the stickers on a shotgun shell produced as an exhibit at the murder trial of Russell John Tully.
The spent shotgun cartridge is exhibit 49 at the trial in the High Court at Christchurch where Tully, 49, is on trial for the murder of two Ashburton WINZ staff members, the attempted murder of two others, unlawful possession of two shotguns, and setting a man trap.
No explanation of the cartridge was given to the jury when the shop owner, Clive Burns Watson, gave his evidence today on the third day of the trial before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury.
However, the Crown prosecutor Andrew McRae said in his opening address on Wednesday that a cartridge with the distinctive sticker, “inX” had been found at the scene of the office shooting on September 1, 2014.
Mr McRae told the jury that Tully had used the stickers “to label his property”.
Mr Watson told the trial that a man in black clothing had come into the shop on August 13 or 14, 2014, and asked for the vinyl stickers to be made up. He arrived on a mountainbike, and was wearing heavy clothing including a rolled up balaclava underneath his cycle helmet. He had fingerless gloves.
The man was quietly spoken but “determined in what he wanted”. He was tall, well built. “He just looked normal to me,” said Mr Watson. The customer paid in cash.
He was then shown the Crown’s book of photographs to see a range of items bearing stickers identical to the ones he had made. They were on a bottle, cups, parts of a firearm, shotgun cartridges, and a black mountainbike.
The one on the cartridge case “looks identical to what I made him”, he said.
The exhibit was then passed around the jury.
The Crown has been calling evidence about Tully wearing a dark balaclava rolled up on his head, wearing a black helmet, and moving about on a black mountainbike.
Tully is not present in court for the hearing, and when he was present for one session on Thursday, he was taken out of court after an outburst.
He is on trial for the murders of Peggy Turuhira Noble and Susan Leigh Cleveland and the attempted murder of Lindy Louise Curtis and Kim Elizabeth Adams, in a shotgun shooting at the Ashburton Work and Income NZ office on September 1, 2014.
He is also charged with setting a man trap – a steel wire stretched between two trees – and unlawful possession of two shotguns. One shotgun is an exhibit in court, but the Crown has said the one allegedly used in the shootings has never been found.
Tully has no lawyer of his own, but is represented in court by two amicus curiae (friends of the court), James Rapley and Phil Shamy. Mr McRae and Mark Zarifeh represent the Crown.
Tully was not present in court when the charges were read but he was deemed to have entered not guilty pleas.
The trial is continuing.
Category: News
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