Russel Allison died in a house fire in 2013. Picture supplied
Russell Allison was “hurt and disappointed” after his daughter visited for a few days and left with a china set he and his late wife Maree had once received as a wedding gift.
It was the only remaining material link Russell had to Maree, a woman who had worked as a caregiver for him between 2010 and 2012 told a jury in Gisborne on Friday.
Former caregiver Leigh Ann Mitchell was giving evidence for the Crown in the High Court trial for Russell's daughter Lynne Maree Martin, 63, who is accused of deliberately burning down her father's house sometime after midnight and before 2.30am on January 25, 2013, knowing the frail and hearing impaired 88-year-old was asleep inside.
Mrs Mitchell said she couldn't recall the exact date of Martin's visit but noticed that during it, all the china had been removed from two cabinets and laid out on the floor. When Martin left, the china went too. Russell’s 16-foot fibreglass boat had also gone.
Mrs Mitchell acknowledged it was none of her business what arrangement might have been in place for those items and she had not been privy to any conversations between Russell and his daughter about them.
However, Mrs Mitchell said she had asked Russell about the china, “because I could see how he felt about it. He said he didn’t want to see the china go because that was his last link to Maree (his deceased wife)”.
He was “hurt and disappointed”, Mrs Mitchell said.
Russell then told her his daughter “already had” his late wife’s jewellery.
The Crown alleges Martin, Russell’s adopted and only daughter, travelled to her father’s Whatatutu farmhouse on January 24, 2013, after a 22-minute phone call earlier that day in which he had refused to give her his boat and had hung up on her. Phone polling data put her within the Te Karaka cell phone tower's range of about 10kms.
Prosecutors Steve Manning and Clayton Walker claim Martin murdered her father for her $150,000 inheritance and that the phone call earlier that day was a trigger for what followed. Martin, broke at the time, was angered by her father's reaction to her request in the phone call.
Martin justified the killing to herself by maintaining unproven claims of historical sex abuse, the Crown said.
Another of Russell’s former morning caregivers, Marlene Fisher, also gave evidence on Friday. She and Mrs Mitchell each said how much they enjoyed their time with Russell.
“He was a lovely man, a really lovely man,” Mrs Mitchell said.
Sometimes she would take him out driving.
“He really liked that as he was a contractor in the area (previously) so we’d go and look at the places where he used to work”.
Russell was “very frail” and couldn’t get more than “a metre of two” without his walking frame.
“His eyesight and hearing were both going but he had a fantastic memory.”
Russell’s son John, who lived nearby and worked the family farm, dropped in to visit his father “two to three times a day”, Mrs Mitchell said.
It was clear they “loved each other dearly”. She had never seen them argue and they were “happy in each other’s company”.
She only met Russell’s daughter once when she and her partner stayed at the house for a few days.
In addition to laying out the china, the pair had used a van to pull Russell’s boat out of a shed and were washing it, Mrs Mitchell said.
Mrs Fisher, who worked for Russell during 2009, said Martin had visited once during her tenure and was introduced to her a couple of times, but had not acknowledged her.
Both caregivers ruled out the possibility that Russell might have used the stove the night of his death.
They each had access to house keys hidden outside but did not know who might also have known about those keys, other than John, Russell, and possibly other caregivers.
Earlier on Friday the jury was shown a taped police interview Martin had agreed to in February, 2013, with (then) Tauranga detective John Brans.
During the interview, Martin talked in detail about members of the Allison family and the workings of various family will arrangements over the years.
Asked how she knew about the workings of the wills, Martin said it was "always openly discussed".
She said despite things that had happened in the past, she loved her father.
She claimed to have last seen him in March, 2011, when she and her husband Graeme had gone to Russell’s house to discuss the boat with him.
She didn’t phone her dad regularly, “just every now and again”. She had phoned him the afternoon before the fire.
Martin described the call as being “general chit chat really” and said her farther had told her he was struggling to get around. She didn't mention any disagreement.
When Detective. Brans asked Martin what she could remember about the day before her father’s death, she said, “I’m going to ask you why?”
“Now, I’m curious Why are my movements needed to be known 24 hours prior to father…? Now you’ve got me wondering, can you see where I’m coming from? You’re asking me to explain - account for my time - leading up to my father’s passing.
Det Brans said he would have thought it would be an obvious question and said lots of people had been asked the same, including her brother John.
“I’m happy to talk about anything but I don’t see the relevance of that and if you’re looking at that sort of line of questioning with me, I’d like to have a lawyer present,” she said.
The trial is expected to take up to another four weeks.
Judge Helen Cull is presiding.
Jurors hear covert recordings made by undercover cop
Accused's confidante gives evidence against her
Accused’s husband: “She’s not someone who can live with the guilt of telling a lie”
His father was 'never a burden', says son
Cold case murder trial: Why John Allison believes his sister murdered their father
Accused "unemotional" about father's death
Murdered for money: Crown alleges daughter was after her inheritance
Russell Allison cold case: Daughter on trial for 2013 murder
Residents say there is more to the story than Gisborne's economic ranking suggests.