Evidence against Tully ‘overwhelming’, says Crown
The Crown says the case that the Ashburton WINZ gunman was Russell John Tully is overwhelming.
“It is an extremely strong circumstantial case,” said Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh as he began his closing address to the jury on the 10th day of the trial in the High Court at Christchurch before Justice Cameron Mander.
“The Crown says the evidence in this case proving the gunman was the defendant Russell John Tully was overwhelming,” Mr Zarifeh said. “There are a lot of strands of evidence, all woven together to point to that inescapable conclusion.”
Tully, 49, 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.
The Crown has spent much of the last two weeks calling evidence of more than 70 witnesses.
Mr Zarifeh said the jury must guard against sympathy or prejudice in deciding the case.
Tully had not really engaged in the process and last week had made a couple of protests to the judge.
He reminded the jury that the judge had directed them to put that issue out of their mind. Tully had not had his own lawyer in court for the trial, but he had had the benefit of two very experienced counsel assisting the court.
He then reviewed the Crown case which had many independent strands of evidence “that all point in one direction – they all point to the shooter being Mr Tully”.
The Crown case was that Tully had a grudge against WINZ and its staff, and when he was found he had a handwritten note which contained the words, “Discrimination. Leigh Cleveland and Kim Adams.”
These were the two case workers who had the most dealings with Tully, and they were both shot at by the balaclava-clad gunman. Members of the public at the office at the time were not targeted by the gunman.
It was apparent that the shooter was local. He had arrived by bike and fled on a bike.
Tully was seen as a “demanding and manipulative” client of WINZ, and he would often complain about his treatment. He was the only client the office was having serious issues with at the time.
“He blamed WINZ staff for the position he was in and he was going to make them pay,” Mr Zarifeh said.
Tully as “a man with nothing to lose” because he had told a witness about his medical condition and thought he was dying.
Backpacks found with Tully in a hedge later that day contained a shotgun – not the one used in the shootings – a sock with 37 shotgun shells, and a distinctive green jacket with a black and white stripe around the arms and across the chest. This was the same jacket worn by Tully in security camera images from other businesses shortly before the shootings, and in the security camera footage from the WINZ office which shows the shootings taking place.
The Crown closing will be followed by a closing address by one of the amicus curiae, James Rapley, who has been conferring regularly with Tully. Justice Mander expects to sum up for the jury this afternoon and it will then retire to consider its seven verdicts.
Category: News
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