Joshua Dylan Morris-Bamber denies murdering Tony Waldron in September 2019. Photo / Pool
Joshua Dylan Morris-Bamber denies murdering Tony Waldron in September 2019. Photo / Pool
An estranged wife orchestrated a series of events that led to her angry cousin attacking her husband while he slept, shattering his skull, in what the Crown alleged today was a murderous four-minute window.
Canterbury dairy farm worker Tony Grant Waldron, 29, was found dead at his Gardiners Rd, Rakaia, home, 45 minutes south of Christchurch, on September 18, 2019, after failing to show up for 5.30am milking.
After a massive homicide investigation, Waldron's wife Alana Jane Bamber, 35, and her cousin, Joshua Dylan Morris-Bamber, 28, were charged with murder.
A week before, Bamber had attended a neighbour's party where the Crown alleges she flirted with the host and didn't come home until deep into the early hours.
Waldron was already off milking but when someone sent him photos of Bamber's behaviour at the party, he messaged her: "Don't be there when I get home".
Tony Waldron. Photo / Facebook
Two days later, Bamber alleged she was the victim of a domestic assault where police were called.
The Crown says the assault was "grossly exaggerated" by her - that Waldron had simply pushed her away from him – and that over the next few days, Bamber set about ramping up sympathy to try and get the upper hand in separation arrangements and turn people against Waldron.
She went to stay with family members in Christchurch who asked Morris-Bamber - who she hadn't spoken to in some years after a falling out – if she could come and stay with him with her children.
Morris-Bamber was a chef at a top city hotel and enjoyed a "hospitality lifestyle", working and drinking late, the Crown said, claiming that he felt having others living with him would significantly cramp his lifestyle.
He was also angry and frustrated that he couldn't have a closer relationship with a woman he worked with, the Crown claimed.
On the night of September 17, Morris-Bamber had finished his shift and went drinking with workmates, the Crown alleges, and afterwards visited Bamber at the Gloucester St flat she was staying at.
They chatted, probably outside the Crown says, for about 15 minutes.
Then, about 11pm, Morris-Bamber sent a Facebook message to his cousin Bamber, which was allegedly seen by a witness, which reportedly said: "What is Tony's address? I need to get some anger out."
The essential piece of evidence – that Morris-Bamber denies – was not able to be retrieved because both murder accused allegedly deleted content from their phones.
The trial is being heard at the High Court in Christchurch. Photo / George Heard
But the Crown said that Morris-Bamber inadvertently deleted the address and asked for it again. A screenshot of Bamber's response was allegedly later found by police.
Family members allegedly tried to stop Morris-Bamber from heading to Waldron's property that night but Bamber is accused of telling them to leave him, adding: "Better one life than two".
Waldron that night went to bed about 12.56am after playing an online video game with a friend.
The Crown alleges that Morris-Bamber drove for about 45 minutes south on State Highway One to Waldron's farm, with cellphone data and CCTV from NZTA cameras plotting his movements.
His car, the Crown says, was captured travelling across Rakaia Bridge at 12.47am - and passing a golf course going in the direction of Gardiners Rd at 12.56am.
The same car is seen passing the same golf course again, heading back to Rakaia, at 1.04am.
With driving time, the Crown says Morris-Bamber had "at least four minutes" at Waldron's house, which they say was "ample time" to go inside and fatally assault him while he was sleeping.
A post-mortem suggests Waldron was struck by a solid weapon at least three times on the side of his head, ear, and neck. The first blow would've rendered him immediately unconscious, the court heard, and it's likely he never woke up.
Waldron suffered a fractured skull – dislodging a 4cm x 2cm fragment of bone - along with other multiple cracks, broken jaw, and bruising to the neck.
Morris-Bamber left at speed, the Crown claims, stopping briefly to hide "forensically-important items" like the murder weapon and bloodied clothing that he would later allegedly move again. They would never be found, the court heard.
Waldron was found dead by a workmate after he failed to show for 5.30am milking.
The Crown claimed Morris-Bamber deleted Google searches and location data to "cover his tracks", while Bamber also deleted messages off her phone.
It's alleged that Morris-Bamber followed news of the subsequent police murder investigation closely.
He would later be interviewed twice by detectives, initially denying ever visiting Rakaia but when confronted with cellphone data, CCTV imagery, and evidence that placed him outside Waldron's home about 1am, the Crown said he paused and then said, "It is what it is".
In her opening statement today, Morris-Bamber's defence counsel Anne Stevens KC denied that her client was angry that night – and that he bore no ill will against Waldron.
He did not like, and did not trust, his cousin Bamber, Stevens said.
While she accepted that Morris-Bamber drove to Rakaia that night around 1am, he never went inside the property – but rather sat outside for a few minutes and left.
The lawyer said the Crown's scenario of a four-minute window where an intruder has arrived in the dark, gathered a weapon, walked up the drive, opened the gate, gone inside, dealt with Waldron's dogs, and then beat him to death and left via a detour to the bathroom where some blood has dripped on the sink, and driven away is "simply not credible".
While saying the timeframe "does not work" for the case against Morris-Bamber, she also pointed out that it would all have to have been achieved without any drip, smear or transfer of any blood into his car – despite it being a brutal murder where "impact spray" of Waldron's blood was widespread.
Waldron could've been murdered anytime between around 1am and 5.30am when he did not show at the milking shed.
Defence counsel Kerry Cook said in his opening statement to the jury that his client, Alana Bamber was not there when her husband died – and does not know what happened.
She didn't want Waldron dead, or hurt, and "whatever happened was not her wish, not her involvement, not her desire, not her design".
The trial, before Justice Gerald Nation, continues tomorrow.
