Samuel Samson is charged with the murder of Miss Wilson at the Bavarian Motel in Invercargill on November 17.
The jury trial before Justice Gerald Nation, entered its fourth week in the High Court at Invercargill yesterday, where the Crown and defence teams made their closing statements.
While the Crown’s case was Samson had killed Miss Wilson in a jealous rage, the defence claimed police focused on only one suspect and there were "huge failures" in the investigation.
Crown prosecutor Riki Donnelly said Samson arrived at an Invercargill nightclub at 1.05am
Mr Donnelly said evidence from taxi driver Abraham Mohammed was that he had picked up a man at 1.23am to take him to an address in Waikiwi, near the motel.
The man seemed angry.
When Samson got out, he said to the driver, "You will see me in the news".
Samson arrived at the motel at 1.43am where Miss Wilson and their baby were staying.
Mr Donnelly said Samson had "in his head" he had been wronged by Miss Wilson.
He said an associate of Samson, who was granted name suppression, helped him leave the motel with items from the motel which were later found on and near the Oreti River and the baby.
Mr Donnelly replayed CCTV footage from the night club and showed a photo of what Samson was wearing on the night, which included Converse shoes.
During the trial, evidence was given that a pattern of shoes similar to a Converse was found on Miss Wilson’s torso.
A "multitude of strains" came together, with evidence linked to other evidence, Mr Donnelly said.
Defence lawyer Judith Ablett-Kerr QC said the Crown’s case relied on a lot of innuendos and rumours and police, from the beginning, looked to only one suspect — her client.
Some of the flaws included:
- A failed attempt to take the phone of a witness who had allegedly received a Facebook video call showing a woman after she had been attacked — an "important piece of evidence".
- The decision to not use the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 to obtain the cellphone the video call was received on.
- Failure to get some CCTV footage evidence from the motel.
- Failure to retrieve information from Facebook.
The Crown’s theory about the Converse shoes was also flawed as police measured the shoes only last week, she said.
Pictures showing Samson’s shoes and the photo of the evidence of the shoes found in the boot of the Nissan car were quite different .
Ms Ablett-Kerr said the Crown theory did not add up as it did not make sense that duvets, kettles and other items were dumped at Oreti River, but not the shoes.
She said conversations Samson had with associates were him apologising about running away.
She told jurors not to judge people on how they reacted in traumatic situations.
"You do look guilty if you run away but it doesn’t actually make you guilty."
She ended her address with the last message from Miss Wilson to Samson at about midnight on November 17.
"‘Hi baby, kiss kiss, I love you. kiss, kiss. I hope you you are having a good night’ - that’s the last message of Azalia to Sam Samson."
Justice Nation will sum up the case today before the jury begin deliberations.
- Court reporter
