KEY POINTS:
When Oliver Nicholas first saw the body of his dead father, he retrieved a notebook from the top pocket.
"I just saw his notebook there and thought it would be a good idea to remove it," Mr Nicholas told a Napier District Court depositions hearing yesterday.
The farmer's
notebook usually contained stock tallies, but could also record the registration numbers of "suspicious" vehicles that passed the family farm, near Puketitiri, about 90 minutes northwest of Napier in the Kaweka Ranges foothills.
The farm buildings were across a river from Makahu Valley Rd, but a "paper" road allowed public access to Conservation Department land - including hot springs - at the back of the farm.
It is alleged that Murray Kenneth Foreman, of Haumoana near Napier, went to the isolated property about 6.30am on August 27, 2004, and shot Jack Nicholas twice, once in the arm then again in the left side of the chest.
Foreman faces a second charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice after allegedly asking his partner to make a false statement to police.
He has denied the charges.
Rescue helicopter crewman Gregory Harmon yesterday gave a gruesome account of arriving at the scene of the killing.
Aside from an observable "mark" on Mr Nicholas' arm, he said, there was "a reasonably large wound to the centre of the lefthand side of his chest".
"There was quite a substantial amount of blood in a straight line across a fence, then up in a circular motion on to a glasshouse."
It was clear Mr Nicholas was dead, and no attempt to find vital signs was made.
"There was white frothy lung all lying in the blood."
Oliver Nicholas earlier said strangers crossing over the farm were common, and his father had clashed with trespassers on two occasions in the fortnight before his death.
He told prosecutor Steve Manning "a couple of guys" had broken into a hut - known as Pink's Hut - at the back of the farm.
"They claimed the hut had already been broken into when they turned up there."
The hut is on private property that is part of the farm.
The court heard that Jack and Oliver Nicholas had also "chased off a couple of spotlighters" about the same time. Spotlighting is the hunting of vermin such as rabbit, deer or possums using a battery-powered light.
Oliver Nicholas said his father "could not tolerate poachers. He generally told them to get the hell out of it, and, depending on their attitude, served them with a trespass notice".
The family had experienced "poaching, stock theft and cattle shooting, for no reason" a number of times over the years, the court heard.
Mr Nicholas also told the court he had seen evidence that a vehicle had forded a river on to the property the night before the killing.
Vehicle tracks - which he referred to as "the wash" - could be seen on the riverbank. He estimated the tracks had been left between 10 and midnight the previous evening.
The hearing, before Judge David McKegg, is set down for two weeks.