KEY POINTS:
The credibility of some of the witnesses in the trial of Tracy Goodman, charged with murdering a Marton pensioner in 2005, was not directly an issue, crown prosecutor Andrew Cameron told a High Court jury today.
Mr Cameron began delivering his closing address in Wanganui today, after a four week trial of 43-year-old Goodman for the murder of Mona Morriss on January 3, 2005, and the burglary of her flat the same day.
Mr Cameron acknowledged the jury would question the credibility of some of the crown witnesses who gave evidence in the trial.
One, whose identity is suppressed, was in jail when she says Goodman confessed the killing to her.
Les Goodman, the accused's former husband, gave evidence about burglaries he committed with his ex-wife, while Andrea Stratford, who said she received items the crown says belonged to Mrs Morriss, has more than 100 convictions.
Mr Cameron said the jury could think what they liked about the three witnesses, but in each case, the essential evidence was independently corroborated, he said.
As an example, he pointed out Mr Goodman had referred to a burglary he said his former wife had committed at Mrs Morriss' flat in 2003 - important evidence for the crown which says Goodman always returned to previous properties she had burgled.
It was police evidence that Mrs Morriss had been robbed in 2003, Mr Cameron said.
Mrs Stratford's evidence, that Goodman had given her a tape measure and small change purse she handed in to police in May 2005 when they came to search her flat, was corroborated by the fact she produced the tape and purse on the spot in front of a police officer, he said.
"She didn't just conjure them up, she had no time to think about it beforehand," he said.
Mr Cameron said the two items created a clear and direct link between Goodman and Mrs Morriss' house.
Similarly, two sightings put Goodman at the scene in the hour before Mrs Morriss was killed.
One witness, Elizabeth Coleman, saw Goodman at 5.20pm, acting suspiciously at her house, a couple of streets over from Mrs Morriss' home.
Goodman admitted to police attempting to burgle Mrs Coleman's house.
Another woman saw a car similar to Goodman's parked near the Wellington Road flats Mrs Morriss lived in at 6pm - in the same spot Goodman later told police she parked at when visiting her niece, who also lived in the flats.
Mr Cameron acknowledged the crown case was largely circumstantial.
But he said circumstantial evidence could still convict.
"Circumstantial cases like this one do not work like links in a chain where if any one link breaks, the chain must fail.
"It is more like rope, composed of several cords. One strand of the rope may be insufficient to support the weight, the burden of proof on the crown to prove she is not only the burglar but also the murderer beyond reasonable doubt."
The jury must consider all the evidence together, he said.
Two independent tests showed a long black hair found at the flat was likely to belong to either Goodman's niece or Goodman herself. If it was the niece's, Goodman could easily have transferred it into the house.
Although it could have blown in from outside, Mr Cameron said this was a remote possibility.
"It would have to be a coincidence of enormous statistical consequence," he said.
"I am saying to you that in the context of the evidence as a whole, that that is so unlikely, so remote, that you can put it to one side, and you should.
"That hair is powerful evidence, powerful, powerful evidence."
Defence counsel will make their closing statement this afternoon, and Justice Mark Cooper is expected to sum up tomorrow morning.
- NZPA
