No pattern to robberies, claims defence counsel
Hearing a man was involved in one robbery might not help a jury decide if he was also part of a plan to rob, bash and kidnap a taxi driver, a defence lawyer says.
Bronson Boudine Samson, 24, and Jade Richard Barton, 25, each admitted robbing two recently arrived foreign students on Lower Hutt’s Petone Beach in August last year.
A few hours later, about 2.30am on August 9, they were alleged to have attacked a taxi driver in an industrial area at the bottom of the Ngauranga Gorge in Wellington.
Odesho Shemon said he was hit from behind and knocked unconscious. He woke in the boot of his car.
After about two hours the car stopped in a secluded area of the northern Wellington suburb of Grenada. Shemon said he pretended to be unconscious when the boot was opened, and his keys and a bag were taken from him before he heard another vehicle leaving the area.
He smelt burning and got out of the boot to extinguish a fire in the driver’s seat.
Samson has pleaded guilty to his part in the robbery but Barton pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding, kidnapping, arson, and possession of a knife.
A jury in the High Court at Wellington began considering its verdicts yesterday, and will continue today.
Barton’s lawyer, Chris Tennet, said the Petone robbery was of limited use to the jury in deciding whether Barton knew what would happen to the taxi driver.
The day after the taxi driver was robbed, police interviewed Barton who said he and Samson had gone out to get money but that did not involve beating the driver, putting him in the boot and setting a fire. Barton said he stayed in his own car.
Tennet said Samson was off on his own adventure, and then went ‘‘tiki touring’’ with the driver in the boot.
Text messages asked where Samson was, and calls allegedly from Barton to Samson went unanswered.
Shemon was injured in the attack, including suffering four hairline fractures in his spine. He has not returned to work as a taxi driver.
Justice Francis Cooke told the jury the Petone robbery had limited relevance and jurors could not assume because Barton committed one robbery that he must be guilty of the other.