Key witness lying deviant or honest, candid, jurors told
Either the main witness in the trial into the murder of a young Christchurch mother almost 30 years ago is a psycho-killer trying to spread the blame, or he is an honest and accurate witness.
That essential choice for jurors was highlighted in closing addresses by lawyers yesterday as the trial entered its fifth week.
Jeremy Powell confessed to the murder of Angela Blackmoore when he was brought in for a police interview on October 25, 2019, after he was identified by information from Witness X, who had responded to a $100,000 police reward.
Blackmoore, 21, was bludgeoned and then stabbed in a brutal attack on August 17, 1995 in her home in Wainoni. She was pregnant at the time.
Powell said he was assisted in the murder by his then girlfriend Rebecca WrightMeldrum and alleged he was acting on orders from David Hawken who was to pay the pair $10,000.
Hawken, 50, and Wright-Meldrum, 51, deny a charge of being parties to Blackmoore’s murder. Powell was the star witness for the Crown.
In closing addresses, Crown prosecutor Pip Currie asking: “Is Jeremy Powell a sadistic, psychopathic and depraved individual who is framing David Hawken or Rebecca WrightMeldrum? “Or has he simply relayed to this courtroom in a very candid and compelling way the full picture of how Angela Blackmoore’s murder came about?”
Although Powell was the focus of the trial, plenty of other evidence supported his account, Currie said.
Important corroborating testimony came from Hawken’s former partner, Tony Parris, who confirmed the meetings Powell said he and Wright-Meldrum had with Hawken before the murder. Hawken denied the meetings took place. A “massive piece of corroborating evidence” against Wright-Meldrum was her confession to Tina Cartwright, who played a game of Dungeons and Dragons with Powell and Wright-Meldrum just after Blackmoore’s murder.
The evidence – from an unbiased, reliable and credible witness with great recall – showed Powell’s account wasn’t something he just made up, it was argued.
An intercepted phone call between WrightMeldrum about two months after her arrest provided a “slam dunk” piece of evidence, Currie said.
In that call to her ex-husband, WrightMeldrum remarked that as long as police were “sniffing” around the gangs as the culprits, “we were safe”.
Currie said Hawken was far more savvy than Wright-Meldrum in his phone conversations that were intercepted by police.
However, the calls showed he made a number of statements which were odd if he had nothing to do with Blackmoore’s murder. He said he didn’t have a lot to do with WrightMeldrum, but other witnesses disagreed.
Hawken maintained he got on well with Angela, but others said it wasn’t true. He told Press journalist Blair Ensor that he and Blackmoore’s ex-husband, Willie, parted company on good terms, but that was a lie.
He maintained he only wanted to help “Willie and Angela” but he was in a desperate financial situation and was only out to help himself. He wanted their house in Cashel St, which he treated as his own, and thought he could easily manipulate Willie with Angela out of the way.
Anne Stevens, KC, representing Hawken, said Powell must have been a depraved and callous individual to have killed Blackmoore in the way he did.
Powell was the lynchpin of the Crown case, but he was someone who lied for 24 years and was pushed into a confession.
He had strong incentives to lie because blaming others would result in less shame for him and his family, she said. The prospect of a lighter sentence gave Powell another incentive to lie. He was obsessed with death, and his playing of Dungeons and Dragons was a manifestation of that, and Blackmoore became a target.
Evidence showed he had an interest in sadistic videos and lied in court about why titles of objectionable videos were found on his devices. Although no actual videos of rape and violence were present on Powell’s devices, he must have known he was at risk when the police offered the $100,000 reward and deleted the objectionable videos, it was argued.
Parris’s evidence had to be treated with caution because Parris had a very negative view of Hawken, and her memory was coloured by her feelings and bias, jurors were told.
Blackmoore’s death resulted in a transfer of properties to ex-husband Willie, and provided no benefit to Hawken, she said. He had no motive, got no gain and had no power.
Phil Shamy, representing Wright-Meldrum, will make his closing address today.