It took just one fatal shot from a .22 calibre rifle to kill 40-year-old Dale Watene, a court heard yesterday.
The trial for two people accused of being involved in the murder of Mr Watene began before Justice Gerald Nation at the High Court in Invercargill on Monday.
Sandy Maree Graham (32) is charged with his murder at Otautau on April 16, 2020.
George Ivor Hyde (24) is charged with accessory after the fact to murder at Otautau between April 16 and 27, 2020.
Mr Watene’s body was found buried in a shallow grave in the Longwood Forest near Otautau on May 18, 2020.
On Monday, defence lawyer for Graham, Sarah Saunderson-Warner, said Mr Watene had been shot at Graham’s home but it was not done on purpose nor with murderous intent.
Yesterday jurors watched Graham’s second police interview conducted on August 4, 2020 after she was arrested for Mr Watene’s murder.
During the four-and-a-half-hour interview Sergeant Fred Shandley presented Graham with evidence police had gathered during their investigation.
Part of that evidence was the initial forensic pathology report from Dr Martin Sage.
In it, Dr Sage reported Mr Watene was buried at the location in Longwood Forest not long after he died and that he died from a single inevitably fatal injury close to the time he was last seen alive on April 16, 2020.
"He said Dale had been shot through the mouth with a small-calibre, low-energy weapon. The bullet has passed front to back on the upper surface of his tongue before striking his spinal column in the back of his throat." Sgt Shandley said.
The range was about 0.4m and the spent round retrieved from the body was similar to others he had seen when a .22 calibre rifle had been used.
His said the gun shot would cause immediate collapse and would likely be immediately fatal.
A ballistic examination of the .22 calibre rifle retrieved from her friend Geoffrey Miller’s revealed Mr Watene’s DNA on the rifle and inside the barrel.
The groove pattern found on the spent bullet matched the .22 calibre Ruger rifle police believed was at Graham’s house at the time of the killing.
Audio interceptions from police were played during the interview.
In one recording, Graham speaks to a friend on the phone about how Mr Watene died.
She told the friend he was hit on the head with a brick and then shot with a gun.
In the background a child adds he was shot in the throat, before Graham quickly says to the person on the phone he was shot in the throat.
When Sgt Shandley asked about how she knew this information even though the pathology report had only been made available to police a few days before, she said her ex-husband, who knew police officers, had told her and there were also rumours around the township.
Forensic testing showed bricks, flashing and wallpaper used to hide the freshly dug grave site were matched back to materials found at Hyde’s house.
When Sgt Shandley put it to her that they knew Hyde had visited her on the night Mr Watene died and they colluded together to get rid of the body, she denied it saying she could not remember Hyde being there.
During the interview she continuously denied she had anything to do with the killing and that she had the gun when he was killed.
"I swear on my kids’ life I did not have that gun."
The trial continues on Monday.
