Bloody print isn’t that of murder accused: Expert
A bloody fingerprint found on the suitcase that authorities believe Elizabeth Zhong’s stabbed body was stuffed into didn’t match business partner Fang Sun’s prints, an expert said yesterday as testimony in the lengthy murder trial concluded.
Independent fingerprint expert Thomas Coyle, who was hired by Sun’s defence counsel, addressed jurors in the High Court at Auckland via an audio-visual feed as he disagreed with a police expert’s earlier analysis.
Sun is accused of breaking into Zhong’s East Auckland home early on November 28, 2020, and stabbing her more than 20 times before stuffing her body in a suitcase and placing her in the boot of her Land Rover. The killer then tried to clean up the crime scene and remove Zhong’s CCTV system, authorities allege.
Police found the businesswoman, 55, in her abandoned vehicle the next day, with the bloody suitcase by that point placed on top of her.
Fingerprint expert Lucy Schwaner testified for the Crown this week that the print lifted from the suitcase was too degraded to judge whose it might have been. It also was not a suitable enough print to exclude anyone.
“I agree it’s unsuitable for identification,” the defence expert replied yesterday. “I disagree it’s unsuitable for exclusion.
“In my opinion, I can exclude Mr Sun.”
Coyle was the first and only witness called by defence lawyers Sam Wimsett, Yvonne Mortimer-Wang and Honor Lanham after five weeks of testimony from Crown witnesses. They concluded their evidence yesterday without calling Sun to testify on his own behalf.
Justice Neil Campbell told jurors to expect a closing argument from prosecutors on Monday, followed by an argument from the defence on Tuesday and a summing up from the judge on Wednesday, after which deliberations would begin.