KEY POINTS:
Hawke's Bay farmer Jack Nicholas was taking cover when he was fatally shot in front of his farmhouse, the High Court was told in Napier today.
Mr Nicholas was hit first in the upper arm and then fatally in the chest, the court was told.
Murray Kenneth Foreman, 51, has been charged with the murder of Mr Nicholas, on August 27, 2004, at Makahu Farm, Puketitiri.
The trial, before Justice David McKegg, is expected to take up to seven weeks.
In his opening address, crown prosecutor Russell Collins told jurors the case was unlikely to be decided on forensic evidence.
"This is not a CSI case. You can not sit there waiting for a piece of evidence that you can rely on for a conviction," he said.
The killer left two spent .308 cartridges at the murder scene but no other forensic evidence.
The 71-year-old victim and his wife Agnes lived on a remote property, about 70km northwest of Napier. An access road to the Kaweka Forest Park crossed part of the farm.
The crown case is that Foreman was confronted by Mr Nicholas a week before the shooting and refused access across the farm with his nine-year-old son for a weekend hunting trip.
Police allege that Foreman returned a week later and shot Mr Nicholas at about 6.30am at the gate of a paddock which surrounded the farmhouse. Three shots were heard by his wife, two in quick succession and one a brief time later.
Mr Collins said fragments of a .308 Winchester bullet were found in Mr Nicholas' right shoulder. Expert evidence would say that injury did not incapacitate the farmer or render him unconscious.
Police believe Mr Nicholas had crouched for cover behind a gatepost, with his left arm over his chest when the fatal shot struck him in the chest.
The Crown alleges Foreman fired the shots, left the murder scene on foot and drove to where he was living in Haumoana, a coastal community south of Napier.
A neighbour, one of the Crown's prime witnesses, would testify seeing him arrive home, describing him as "white, clammy and speaking quietly".
He allegedly told the witness that "he thought he'd just killed somebody", Mr Collins said.
- NZPA
