Murder defendants accuse each other

The men accused of murdering Bradley Alan Lomax in an ‘‘execution’’ accused each other of firing the fatal shots in separate video interviews with police.

Lomax was shot to death on the Waimakariri Riverbed near Kaiapoi on September 4, 2017, hit by .22 rifle shots and shotgun blasts according to the evidence of forensic pathologists.

Kasha William Gosset and Cody Derek Martin were found and interviewed about a week after the killing, each blaming the other for a killing the Crown described as an ‘‘execution’’ during its opening address to the trial in the High Court at Christchurch last week. Today was the trial’s seventh day before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury.

Gosset, 37, of Oxford, and Martin, a 31-year-old drainlayer from Mairehau, both deny the joint charge of murdering Lomax.

Justice Mander told the jury before each video was played that their statements and interviews could only be used as evidence against themselves, and the contents could not be considered in relation to the other defendant.

Martin said he thought they were going to give Lomax a ‘‘rark up’’ over his treatment of a woman They picked him up and drove to the Waimakariri. Martin said Lomax was in the back seat, Gosset was driving, and he was in the passenger seat. At the riverbed, they got out of the car and he thought they were going to give Lomax ‘‘a scare’’ but Lomax advanced towards him ‘‘with an angry face’’. Martin said he did not know if the gun he was holding was loaded, but he pulled the trigger, hitting Lomax in the knee.

Gosset then fired a .22 Ruger semi-automatic into Lomax’s head. Lomax was still alive so Gosset then took the shotgun and fired two shots into Lomax’s head, reloading the gun in the process.

He said that Gosset had previously said he wanted to kill Lomax, but he had thought he was joking.

In Gosset’s video, he admitted taking part in the murder of Lomax.

Gosset said Martin had taken the shotgun and the .22 rifle on the drive to the Waimakariri. He said Martin had shot Lomax in the head a couple of times with the .22 and then shot him with the shotgun in the legs. Martin had then fired more shots with the .22 and then ‘‘finished him off’’ at almost point blank range with the shotgun.

The trial is expected to finish next week.