A witness in the Joanne McCarthy murder trial yesterday described how he nearly ran over a person acting suspiciously near the woman's home on the day she died.
Charter fishing boat skipper Stephen James Kyle, of Whangaparaoa, said he was backing out of his driveway near Joanne McCarthy's Whangaparaoa Rd home between 11.20 am and 11.30 am on November 12, 1998, when he nearly ran over someone on the footpath.
Mr Kyle said he tried to apologise but got no reply and the person tried to hide his face.
"It struck me as suspicious because most people you nearly hit either smile or abuse you."
Mr Kyle said the person was wearing a faded peaked cap, a dark, baggy sweatshirt, knee-length shorts and a pair of dark brown, lace-up ankle boots.
Asked by the prosecutor, Auckland Crown Solicitor Simon Moore, to compare the boots he saw with a pair of court exhibit boots, Mr Kyle said they were "very similar."
Cross-examined by defence counsel Mike Levett, Mr Kyle agreed that yesterday was the first time he had described the boots as being brown.
Travis Burns, aged 32, has pleaded not guilty to battering the 33-year-old kindergarten teacher to death with a hammer on November 12, 1998.
The trial, before Justice Chambers, has ended its fourth week in the High Court at Auckland. It resumes on Monday.
Person 'tried to hide face'
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