Terrified partner heard fatal shot
A drug dealer was shot on his doorstep just metres away from his restrained and terrified partner, a jury has heard.
Stark details of the alleged murder have been revealed on day two of a trial in the High Court in Hamilton where Whakapumautanga ‘‘Cookie’’ Clarke, 25, Cody Paul Griffin, 25, and Daniel George Chase, 22, face charges of murder and aggravated robbery.
Scott John Henry, 48, was found dead by a family member at his Whangamata Rd property near Kinloch, north of Lake Taupo¯ , on July 20 last year. The trio are each accused of murdering Henry and, being armed with a firearm, robbing him of a green Ridgeline Pikau bag and its contents. The trial before a jury of seven men and five women and overseen by Justice Sarah Katz has now been reduced to two weeks after the three defendants conceded they were the three men who went to Henry’s property that night. Yesterday Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon recounted in detail the alleged events of that evening, followed by Henry’s partner Kylie Hartley, who was there that night. Henry was a drug dealer, the court heard, and was known to sell cannabis and methamphetamine from his house, a converted shed, where he lived with Hartley and his son.
About 8pm, the three accused arrived at Henry’s house in the midst of a storm. Hartley, who had been in a relationship with Henry for about two years, was home at the time and had just taken a shower in an outside cubicle, and had just left it when she saw a vehicle parked outside, facing the driveway. She believed it was Henry’s son being dropped off by friends.
To her surprise, soon after, she encountered three men – one pa¯keha¯ and two Ma¯ori – wearing bandanas over their faces. One of the Ma¯ori men was holding a long-barrelled shotgun.