KEY POINTS:
"All I know is three of us went into that forest and only two of us came out."
This graphic quote was given in a hushed High Court at Gisborne yesterday in the murder trial of Paul Joseph Cameron.
Cameron, 38, is accused of shooting Balwinder "Babu" Singh in the Wharerata Ranges, near Gisborne, more than 14 years ago.
Mr Singh, an Indian overstayer, was reported missing in October 1993 and there was no indication of what had happened to him until his skeletal remains were found by forestry workers in November 2005.
Cameron was arrested in October 2006 after an investigation involving undercover police officers.
The Crown claims Cameron took Babu, his mother's boyfriend, into the ranges and shot him dead.
When the trial began on Monday, defence lawyer David Sharp said the Crown's case rested on the fact that Mr Singh had been shot.
The jury would hear that the pathologist was unable to determine a clear cause of death.
"If you are not sure that he died from gunshot wounds, then their case fails," he said.
David Koia, a friend of Cameron's in the early 1990s, testified yesterday that he and Cameron, accompanied by Babu, drove into the Wharerata Forest to check on cannabis plots he and Cameron were growing in late 1993.
He was on his own and walking back to his car when he heard a gunshot sound, followed by a second, then a third.
After reaching his car and starting up, Cameron arrived, without Mr Singh.
"He seemed fairly agitated. When he got in he just said, 'Drive, drive'."
Mr Koia said that when he asked what had happened to Babu, Cameron said, "Don't worry mate, just drive".
In the following weeks Cameron would still not talk about it.
Mr Koia said that over the next couple of years the pair went their separate ways and it was not until some years later when they met again that Cameron revealed what had gone on in the forest. Cameron told him he shot Babu, but not why.
The trial, before Justice Judith Potter, resumes on Monday.
- NZPA
