Murder confession ‘didn’t happen’

A female friend of a man accused of murder says he never confessed to the crime while in her company, directly contradicting a key Crown witness’ account.

But the Crown says she knows more than she lets on and is withholding evidence from the jury.

The trial of the two men accused of murdering Palmiro Macdonald moved to the defence case in the High Court at Palmerston North yesterday.

The Crown says Macdonald was shot by Joseph William Johnson and Chea Paratene Charles Brattle-hemara Haeana, who goes by the surname Hemara, at a Hokio Beach gang pad on March 23, 2016.

Macdonald’s skeletal remains were found in dense bush near Shannon in October 2016.

A key plank of the Crown case is that Johnson allegedly confessed to people about murdering Macdonald. But Jennifer Ross, who was present at one of these alleged confessions, told the court yesterday it did not happen.

She said Johnson and a man with name suppression were in a car together smoking methamphetamine, but only talked about a friend of Johnson’s getting his teeth knocked out in prison.

She did not get a hit of the methamphetamine they were supposed to share because Johnson was getting agitated, she said.

They got into another vehicle and left without the man.

She heard no mention of Macdonald throughout the conversation, she said.

She was sure of the date because she had just finished a home detention sentence and could recall the conversation clearly.

But under questioning from Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk, Ross said she could not remember what the man’s car was like. She was taken through text messages sent about the time of Macdonald’s disappearance, in which she and Johnson talked about him needing a new set of wheels. She did not know what he meant by that, and denied allegations.

Johnson’s lawyer Peter Brosnahan opened the defence case yesterday by describing witnesses he would call to give evidence.

One would be a gang expert who would discuss red clothing found tied around Macdonald’s remains.