Blessie Gotingco trial: Jurors will retire to consider verdict

Blessie Gotingco.

Jury retires today to consider its verdict after prosecution and defence sum up in trial of man accused of rape and murder of Birkdale woman while high on methamphetamine.

The jury in the Blessie Gotingco murder trial has been told the defence case was a lie, but the lawyer for the accused says his client's explanation is the only one that makes sense.

After a false start on Wednesday because of a juror's absence, the Crown gave its closing statement yesterday at the High Court in Auckland, painting a picture of a premeditated, violent slaying.

The trial of the 28-year-old accused of the rape and murder of Mrs Gotingco has run into its fourth week and the judge will sum up today before the jury retires.

Crown prosecutor Kieran Raftery said the evidence was "the only voice she's got in this trial" and urged the jury to return guilty verdicts.

The defendant's version of events was that the frenzied stabbing occurred because he panicked and wanted to make Mrs Gotingco's death look like a random attack.

But Mr Raftery said GPS data from the defendant's anklet showed it was not a five-minute flurry in the garage before retiring to his apartment upstairs, as he had suggested while giving evidence this week.

"He was very busy between 8pm and just before 11. He was busy because he had a number of things to do. The next thing after he raped her was to make sure she could never give evidence against him," he said.

Gotingco family members sat through as much as they could handle but had to leave several times when gruesome details were revealed.

Mr Raftery pointed to the pattern of wounds found by pathologist Dr Carl Wigren on the front and back of Mrs Gotingco's upper body.

"She was struggling and resisting like mad."

But defence lawyer Chris Wilkinson-Smith said the pathologist had not arrived at that firm conclusion after the post-mortem examination.

The lawyer also criticised the Crown's choice of the word "slitting" to describe a slash mark to the victim's throat, which severed her windpipe.

"It might be useful to look at the pattern of those injuries and stab wounds to see whether this is the work of a surgical ending of Mrs Gotingco's life or whether it was [the defendant] not even looking at what he was doing.

"This is the actions of a man in a blind panic."

Mr Raftery highlighted further GPS data in a bid to prove the accused had visited two cemeteries only hours before he hit Mrs Gotingco in his car on Salisbury Rd in Birkdale on May 24, 2014.

"It wasn't just a place to smoke the last of his methamphetamine," he said. "Was it a pure coincidence he went there the following morning to dump the body of Mrs Gotingco?"

But Mr Wilkinson-Smith said that version of events did not fit.

"You've seen the defendant, you might accept there's a bit of intelligence there but how stupid would you be to lay your plans [to kill someone] and not make any plans for the fact you're wearing a GPS bracelet?

"He's intelligent, he's not stupid."

Mr Wilkinson-Smith conceded the stabbing of someone the defendant thought was dead was "unusual" but said his client's judgment was clouded by methamphetamine.