Jury is told to believe witness

THE prosecution argued the jury should believe the testimony of a witness who told the court Brent Malcolm Huxley had boasted he killed Michael Mccabe with a rock.

In his closing address, Crown prosecutor Greg Cummings said witness Darren Hess’ evidence also happened to match the evidence given by forensic pathologist Rohan Samarasinghe.

Huxley is on trial for Mr Mccabe’s alleged murder in Townsville Supreme Court.

The prosecution alleges he killed Mr Mccabe on or about August 15, 2015.

“He said he’d done a hit on a fella for $10,000, told me he dropped a rock on him and showed me his actions how he’d done it,” Mr Hess testified.

Mr Cummings said it wasn’t a coincidence that Mr Hess said Huxley told him he had used a rock, and Dr Samarasinghe said there was a serious fracture that ran from the right-hand side of the skull through to the base of the lefthand side that also could have been caused by blunt “severe force”.

“Which precisely fits the medical evidence you’ve heard years later,” Mr Cummings told the court.

Mr Cummings said the flippant attitude displayed by Hess should not be taken as dishonesty, but rather a reaction to the stressful and uncomfortable environment and experience of giving evidence.

Mr Cummings maintained that Mr Mccabe was not killed in the Burnda St unit in Kirwan, nor was his use of meth a factor.

“In this case the prosecution case is Mr Huxley applied very severe force, force which caused the constellation of damage to the cranium of Mr Mccabe and he did so when he was alive, and that’s what caused his death,” he said.

“He applied that force to Mr Mccabe where his remains were found, that is lying head down, with his head up, on his back, down the hill with his legs splayed.

“The application of force could have been dropping a large rock on his head described by Mr Hess, and that could well have happened where his remains were.”

Leonie Maree Doyle is charged with being an accessory after the fact to manslaughter.

Matthew Luke Horima Rewha is charged with unlawful assault occasioning bodily harm while in company. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Mr Mccabe’s body was found in a creek bed down an embankment off the side of Mount Spec Rd on September 17, 2015.

The trial continues.