KEY POINTS:
The depositions hearing for the man accused of murdering Tony Stanlake, whose handless body was found on a Wellington beach last year, was this morning told of his involvement with cannabis-growing operations.
The Wellington businessman's body washed up at Red Rocks Beach on the south coast on July 9 last year, minus hands.
Daniel Moore, 22, is accused of murdering Mr Stanlake in order to gain control of the profits of the pair's cannabis growing operation, run from Moore's flat in Miramar in suburban Wellington.
At Wellington District Court today, registered electrician Mark Beard said he had done some electrical work for Mr Stanlake, who he knew as Terry, not Tony.
Between May and July last year Mr Stanlake phoned him several times to pester him to install a power point at a house in Miramar, he told the court.
Mr Stanlake told him there was a cannabis growing operation at the house, involving Moore.
Mr Beard did not want to get involved and despite making arrangements to do the job did not show up as arranged.
"I was loathe to do the job. I did not wish to do the job to start with," he said. "It's illegal, the growing of cannabis, that's pretty much the main reason."
The hearing is continuing.
- NZPA
