Murder trial: Strands add up, Davis jury told

Circumstantial evidence showed Wayne Bracken was involved in the killing of Jack Davis and that Neville Dangen was also a party to the murder, a jury in the High Court heard during the Crown's closing address.

But defence lawyer Jonathan Krebs said the Crown case fell well short of proving Bracken killed the Auckland father, and that suspicion was not enough to return a guilty verdict.

Today, Michael Dodds, representing Dangen, was to close his case before Justice Wylie began his final address to the jury of six men and six woman.

The jury will have to consider nearly seven weeks of evidence in relation to the charges faced by the two Far North men.

Bracken, 35, and Dangen 24, are charged with kidnapping and murdering Mr Davis on February 25, 2011.

Mr Davis, 30, was killed with what police believe was a thistle grubber and his body was found off the Wairakau walking track.

Crown prosecutor Mike Smith said Mr Davis had been brutally slain. The circumstantial evidence, when joined together, became like strands of a rope and established the weight of that evidence, he said.

"This is a deliberate, intentional killing. The bindings made Jack completely defenceless - he could not block the blows, retaliate or run away."

Mr Smith said Dangen had known what was going to happen and had helped.

Dangen had claimed it was all Bracken and he was acting in fear of his life, but that was not a defence.

"If you help someone with the knowledge they are going to kill someone else, you are fully liable," Mr Smith said.

In closing for Bracken, Mr Krebs said allegations made by Dangen during videoed police interviews could not be used against Bracken. No evidence placed Bracken at the scene and forensics showed a shoe print associated with Dangen near the body.

"There's no fingerprints, no shoe prints, no DNA, for Mr Bracken at all and no independent scientific evidence to implicate him.

"It would not be a safe verdict to return a guilty verdict on the murder charge for Wayne Bracken," Mr Krebs said.