Bloody pants key evidence in trial

Pants found hanging on a corrugated iron fence has been touted as the key evidence linking a man to a dairy robbery.

But the man’s lawyer says police are trying to unreasonably connect him to the crime.

The trial of Shaquille Michael Hepi is drawing to a close in the Palmerston North District Court, with the lawyers giving their closing addresses yesterday.

Hepi is accused of robbing the Trenton Minimarket in Palmerston North on June 13, 2017.

The dairy was robbed by a man wearing two hoods and sunglasses, who took $300 cash and six packets of Club cigarettes – two each of red, blue and menthol varieties.

The offender ran down various side streets, and a pair of trackpants were found on a fence on a vacant lot where the offender was seen seemingly hiding.

In his closing, Crown prosecutor Joshua Harvey said the pants were ‘‘one of the key issues in the trial’’, because Hepi’s DNA was in a bloodstain on the inside pocket of the pants.

The blood did not have to get on the pants that night to show they were Hepi’s, Harvey said.

‘‘You don’t tend to own pants with someone else’s blood on them.’’

Hepi’s story did not match up to the official timeline verified by security camera footage and contained mistruths, Harvey said.

‘‘This was calculated, this was deliberate and this was well planned.’’

But defence lawyer Paul Murray said police had been ‘‘myopic’’ in its pursuit of Hepi.

Items at Hepi’s home were similar to those used by the robber. These, such as black-andwhite trainers and a kitchen knife, were also very generic, Murray said.

Police also found a vest at Hepi’s house similar to the one the robber is pictured wearing on the dairy security camera footage, but Murray said it had distinct differences to the collar.

Furthermore, other items of interest – a glove and sunglasses the robber wore, and the stolen items – were not at Hepi’s house when it was searched a month after the robbery.

‘‘[The police are] trying to pull and massage what they find to what they have on the [security camera] footage,’’ Murray said.