The mother of two of the defendants accused of a murder near Oamaru last year spent the day under some rigorous cross-examination yesterday.
On the last day of week five of the trial in the High Court at Dunedin, Robert Cumming's counsel Anne Stevens continued to pick apart the evidence of Kim Geary, defendants Jacob and Ryan Geary-Smith's mother.
Ms Geary's evidence has been that her sons had little involvement in the assault, but that Mr Cummings did.
Mrs Stevens challenged Ms Geary on her evidence she did not ask her sons details of what happened on the night, when she knew they had been involved in a police chase, and somebody had been beaten up.
"This is absolute lies, isn't it Ms Geary?"
Ms Geary said it was not.
Mrs Stevens also questioned her about her son Ryan's limp, which was seen on CCTV cameras after the incident.
Ms Geary said her son had a steel rod in his leg, but Mrs Stevens pointed to a text she wrote to his girlfriend asking how his foot was.
"I've caught you out, haven't I Ms Geary?"
Ms Geary said her son's foot had been run over recently by a car.
Mrs Stevens moved on to evidence Ms Geary had washed defendant Steven Boskell's clothes after the assault.
"I suggest all this is an effort to destroy evidence."
Ms Geary said she just washed the clothes "like I normally do".
Asked about evidence she had washed shoes, she said had not.
"You knew they had been burned the morning before," Mrs Stevens suggested.
She said there was a fire in a drum in Ms Geary's back yard at 7am on the morning after the death, and asked her if that was usual.
Ms Geary said it was not unusual, and that she did not ask what was being burned.
Mrs Stevens also challenged Ms Geary on evidence her son told her Cummings had beaten someone up, who might be dead.
"This is all part of the plan, isn't it, to blame Mr Cummings?"
"No, there's no plan," Ms Geary responded.
In cross-examination by Ryan Geary-Smart's counsel David More, Ms Geary said she worked six days a week, and was a single mother.
Her usual day off was Thursday, and that was when she attended to matters like household cleaning.
She had little time during the week to do such work, and cleaned up after all her children, whatever their age.
Asked if she was "a compulsive cleaner", she said she was particular.
On her evidence Ryan Geary-Smart had visited her at work after being in court the day after the death, and she had not asked details of what was going on, Mr More asked her what she was doing at that time.
She said she was busy cooking, on her own, for 50 or 55 people at the rest-home where she worked as a cook.
Ms Geary said the reason her sons left Oamaru after the death was because 'they were trying to dodge Rob [Cummings]".
Mr More asked her about evidence Ryan Geary-Smart had said, during a meeting of the defendants at her house in the days after the death, he had "scissor-kicked" Mr McFarlane's head.
"I didn't hear him say that," Ms Geary said.
Jacob Geary-Smart's counsel Judith Ablett-Kerr QC produced a receipt that showed a vacuum cleaner Ms Geary bought had been purchased on September 10, before the killing that night.
That "put to rest" the idea she bought it to clean up evidence.
Ms Geary told her she had asked Jacob Geary-Smart about what happened on the morning after the death, but he had only told her Cummings had "f***ed up".
She said her son had received medical help "for many years" for anxiety and depression, and suffered from panic attacks.
He had not been involved in a meeting in her house of the defendants in the days after the death, other than to come from his room to get cigarettes.
Stephanie McCormack had been crying on that day because Cummings threatened her, and Ms Geary said had not stayed in her home on the Friday after the death, as she was frightened of Cummings.
The trial continues on Monday.
ODT
The charges
Charged with murdering Justin Conrad McFarlane (35) in his Pine Hill Rd farm house in Elderslie, North Otago, in September last year, are. --
Robert James Cummings (23), of Oamaru.
Steven Kenneth Boskell (19), of Palmerston.
Ryan Geary-Smart (24), of Oamaru.
His brother, Jacob Christopher Geary-Smart (23), of Oamaru.
Charged with being an accessory after the fact of murder. --
Stephanie Rose McCormack (27)
