Brett Hall mystery solved, says Crown
Brett Hall was living in a remote area, building a house, and living his dream, and his supposed mate took it all way from him, a prosecutor says.
Hall, 47, went missing in May 2011 and the last person to report seeing him alive was David Owen Lyttle, his friend and the man building Hall’s house atop a hill on a track off the Whanganui River Rd.
At first police believed Hall was lost in the bush but, as time passed, the disappearance of Hall, who had drug connections and was on parole from prison, was treated as a homicide.
By 2014, police had no body, and were yet to solve the case so a ‘‘Mr Big’’ undercover police operation was used against Lyttle because what he had said from the beginning did not add up, a jury was told yesterday.
Lyttle, 54, was the subject of the intricate police operation in which he was offered entry into an underworld group promising money and opportunities but he had to tell the operation’s boss about the police interest in him.
His lawyers say he was induced to make a false confession.
Lyttle has been on trial at the High Court in Wellington since September 16 and yesterday the Crown made its final address to the jury.
Prosecutor Michele Wilkinson-Smith said it was easy to focus on the Mr Big evidence but even after Lyttle knew he had been caught in the undercover operation, he made more admissions to a police officer and two Department of Corrections officers.
After his arrest, he was asked to tell police where Hall’s body was and he said: ‘‘No, not at the moment.’’ It was not the response of someone falsely accused, Wilkinson-Smith said.
Prison officers who asked if police had the right man were told words to the effect, ‘‘Yeah, it’s been three years, I was going to confess anyway.’’
Even while police thought Hall was just missing in the bush, Lyttle was telling them Hall had guns, which would have been a parole breach that would send him back to prison, and about drug dealing. It wasn’t the actions of a man expecting that his friend would be found alive. Other witnesses said that Hall did not have firearms.
As police investigated further, they found Lyttle had been driving around in the early hours, without a convincing explanation. Police believed he was looking for a place or places to bury the body that had probably been dismembered.
Witnesses had told the jury that Hall was angry about Lyttle’s work on the house. He had paid for materials but the work had not been done. Either Lyttle had ripped him off, or Hall was convinced Lyttle had, Wilkinson-Smith said.
The home was Hall’s dream. Lyttle told the undercover officer that he and Hall had argued, he had given Hall a hiding, things had calmed down and they’d decided to go hunting, and he had shot Hall with a .22 rifle.
Hall did not die immediately and Lyttle suffocated him with a plastic bag, the jury was told. The body was too heavy to move in one piece so Lyttle took off the legs.
Wilkinson-Smith said even if Lyttle had felt threatened by Hall, a pre-emptive strike would not count as self-defence.
Lyttle’s lawyers are due to address the jury on Monday.