Man admits killing but not murder
A DUNEDIN man was beaten to death with a cricket bat before his body was dumped on a rural road, a court has heard.
John Kenneth Collins (39) admitted killing his friend, 45yearold Brent Andrew Bacon, but said he did so in selfdefence.
He pleaded not guilty to murder at the outset of his trial before the High Court at Dunedin yesterday but admitted counts of interfering with a body and unlawfully taking the victim’s car.
Mr Bacon’s body — bundled into a sleeping bag — was found in an advanced state of decomposition under a lowhanging tree beside a road in Seacliff on February 18, 2019. He had died two weeks earlier.
After leaving him there, Collins and his partner, Aleisha Dawson (32), fled to Blenheim where they sold Mr Bacon’s Toyota people mover for $250.
They took a ferry to Wellington and then travelled by bus to Rotorua where police eventually found them.
Collins told officers Mr Bacon had been acting “paranoid” that night while at the couple’s flat at 47 Lock St, in St Clair.
He said the victim came at him, fist raised and looking angry.
Collins described using a cricket bat overarm “like swinging an axe” but said he did not intend to hit Mr Bacon.
However, when the man was on the ground on his stomach the defendant told police he hit him again in the back of the head.
There might have been a third blow but he said he “blacked out”.
Crown prosecutor Pip Norman said forensic staff found blood on the walls, floor, ceiling and furniture.
Mr Bacon suffered fractures to his skull and face, as well as broken bones in his hands which she said were consistent with defensive injuries.
“The
Crown says the nature of the injuries, their location and the force and number of blows all indicate an assault that amounted to murder rather than selfdefence,” Ms Norman said.
The court heard Mr Bacon had moved to Dunedin in 2018 after telling his sister, Lia Bezett, he felt lost and lonely.
She told the jury how her brother’s life had been blighted by drug use which had prompted a series of mentalhealth crises through the years.
Ms Bezett and her husband, Sam, agreed to house Mr Bacon while he worked for their building company.
However, soon after, Collins and Dawson, friends the victim had known in Christchurch, moved down, too.
Mr Bacon spoke fondly of the couple, Ms Bezett said, and admired their efforts to get their lives on track.
She and her husband hosted the pair for a roast and said they were open about “how munted drugs made them”.
They gave Collins work, painting an office and their bedroom, in a bid to give him a legup but Ms Bezett sensed they were “unravelling” when the man tried to get payment for the job before completing it.
She told the jury there seemed to be desperation about the defendant, and Mr Bacon, who had been using methamphetamine that year, had described them as becoming increasingly volatile.
The family’s concerns grew the longer the victim was missing.
Early on February 18, after attending a wedding, Mr Bezett made the short walk from his St Clair home to Lock St and kicked in the door.
“I remember immediately seeing a pool of blood . . . and Brent’s jandal,” he told the court.
“I remember thinking that’s too much blood to survive.”
Counsel Len Andersen said his client might have killed Mr Bacon but stressed he did not have murderous intent.
The trial, before Justice JanMarie Doogue and a jury of six men and six women, is expected to conclude next week.