KEY POINTS:
A 26-year-old Napier woman whose car was stopped near where Hawke's Bay farmer Jack Nicholas was shot in 2004 was initially the prime murder suspect, Napier District Court was told yesterday.
The woman, whose name was suppressed by Judge David McKegg at the request of police prosecutor Russell Collins, was seen hurriedly packing a tent into a silver Nissan Pulsar car at a camping ground just up the road from Mr Nicholas' farm at Puketitiri, about 70km northwest of Napier early on August 27, 2004, the day he was shot.
A helicopter with two police armed offenders squad members aboard followed and stopped the woman's car. It was searched for firearms but none were found.
One of the officers, Napier CIB Detective Nicholas Clere told a depositions hearing yesterday that the woman was wearing plastic bags on her feet when stopped.
Mr Clere said search warrants were obtained to get phone records from the address where she had been living. He had "reasonable grounds" to believe she was responsible for killing Mr Nicholas.
Police eventually established that she hadn't ever owned a firearm. They checked the woman's medical records and information from a doctor at a hospital where she was admitted two days after the shooting. Mr Clere said as the result of those inquiries, he changed his view about her being the prime murder suspect.
His evidence was given at a depositions hearing at which Murray Kenneth Foreman, 50, of Haumoana, near Hastings, is charged with the murder of Jack Nicholas and with procuring a witness to give false evidence. The hearing is expected to finish today.
Earlier in the day a witness, Lisa Whatarau, told defence counsel Bruce Squire QC that a police officer had made her go to his office that morning to talk about her court appearance.
She said the officer, Detective Sergeant Dan Foley, had told her to "stick to her statement".
The hearing was also told police had been paying the $270 a week rent on a key witness' house in Australia since late October.
The witness, Donna Kingi, was a former neighbour of Foreman who previously claimed Foreman told her he thought he had shot someone on the morning Jack Nicholas was killed.
Cross-examined yesterday, Mr Foley confirmed police had paid Ms Kingi's rent for seven months, had paid her A$1636 ($1844) rental bond, provided $2900 in airfares for her and her children, $1050 in living expenses while she was in New Zealand and paid a telephone bill of A$730 ($823).
Mr Foley said Ms Kingi's phone had been taken off her for non-payment and police were having difficulty contacting her in Australia.
She was brought to New Zealand in March last year and fitted with a concealed recording device to tape conversations she had with Foreman.
The court has heard one recording but its contents were suppressed.
Mr Foley confirmed that other electronic recordings obtained by police had been destroyed. They included tapes of conversations intercepted at Foreman's home, in his vehicle and on his mobile phone.
- NZPA