KEY POINTS:
A Napier District Court judge yesterday committed Murray Foreman, of Haumoana, to stand trial in the High Court on a charge of murdering Makahu farmer Jack Nicholas.
Foreman was remanded on bail for a trial callover on June 19 in Napier.
The decision was foreshadowed on Wednesday after Crown prosecutors Russell Collins and Steve Manning presented the last evidence in an eight-day depositions hearing relating to the dawn shooting of 71-year-old Mr Nicholas on his farm in the foothills of the Kaweka Range on August 27, 2004.
As Judge David McKegg adjourned overnight to consider written briefs from more than 50 witnesses in addition to the evidence of 30 police, forensic and civilian witnesses questioned in court, both Mr Collins and defence counsel Bruce Squire, QC, said they would not make additional submissions.
One of Hawkes Bay's biggest homicide inquiries had been going more than 20 months before Foreman, now 50, was charged on May 2 last year, a fortnight after being arrested on a charge of procuring former partner Lisa Marie Whatarau to attempt to pervert the course of justice by making a false statement to police.
But on Wednesday it was revealed that Foreman, who first hit the inquiry radar just four days into the investigation, was not the only person who had been treated as the major suspect in the case.
According to an affidavit first referred to by Mr Squire, cross-examining penultimate Crown witness and Napier CIB member Detective Nick Clere, police at one stage believed a woman on whom he swooped from a helicopter a few hours after the killing was "responsible for the homicide of Jack Nicholas".
But Mr Clere said he changed his view after further inquiries and the woman, whose name is suppressed, was no longer a suspect.
Earlier on Wednesday, Lisa Whatarau, the mother of Foreman's son, told the court she had not stayed with the accused and the boy at Foreman's home in Grove Rd, Haumoana, on either August 26 or 27, 2004.
The Crown had previously alleged Foreman told police that on the night of August 26, the hours leading-up to the killing, he had been at home with Ms Whatarau and his son.
But Ms Whatarau said she did not know where she had stayed. Questioned by Mr Squire, she said she was prone to blackouts as a consequence of a diabetic condition for which she was required to inject herself with insulin four times daily.
Ms Whatarau admitted some distress in her appearance before the court, telling Mr Squire she was upset by a call from inquiry head Detective Sergeant Dan Foley to visit him at Napier CIB before appearing in court yesterday morning to go over her evidence.
She had been contacted by police on many occasions, including several times during the hearing, she said, and in yesterday morning's discussion, had been told by Mr Foley "to stick to my statement".
Appearing as the last witness, Mr Foley agreed police had paid thousands of dollars to keep in touch with Australia-based witness and former Foreman neighbour Donna Kingi, who last week told the court the accused told her on the day of the shooting he thought he had shot someone.
Among other evidence suppressed during the hearing were police conclusions drawn from reconstructions of how they believed the killing had taken place, and how the killer escaped.
Main Points:
* The accused: Murray Kenneth Foreman.
* The charges: One of murdering Jack Nicholas in August 2004.One of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
-HAWKE'S BAY TODAY
