Referring to the woman's account of her encounter with Dwyer, the lawyer said her judgement had been impaired by using P in conjunction with prescribed medication. He said Dwyer's involvement ended at the apartment, he had not been at the businessman's Mt Maunganui storage shed where the man's employee was kidnapped, nor had he been at Rotorua where the businessman was roughed up or at his Lakes retreat when the businessman was abducted. He said there were no fingerprints or DNA to rely on or evidence of cellphone messages linking Dwyer to any of these places.
He reminded the jury the businessman's identification of Dwyer from a police photo montage was made after two days of interviewing during which he'd gone without the P he was addicted to. This, he said, made it suspect.
Gunning's lawyer, Bill Lawson, said his client was the one defendant who had done nothing. Mr Lawson said that, at the start of the trial, the crown had been so sure of its facts that Gunning had been charged with aggravated robbery. He said it had become so unsure since that the charge had been reduced to being a party to robbing the businessman's girlfriend of her cellphone. This is the only charge Gunning faces.
Mr Lawson said that, to be guilty of robbery, Gunning had to have taken the phone with threats of violence but there was no proof there had been any. "Look at the evidence and it's not even close," he told the jury.
McDonnell's lawyer, Bruce Hesketh, said McDonnell had not been at the lake retreat during the attack on the businessman and his subsequent kidnapping, nor had he held the maintenance man against his will. "They were on their own mission," he said. "That mission was getting more methamphetamine."
Other defence lawyers will make their closing submissions on Wednesday.
