The man accused of murdering Blessie Gotingco.
The lawyer for the man accused of raping and murdering Blessie Gotingco described the Crown's case as "nonsense" that did not stand up to scrutiny.
"You've seen the defendant, you might accept there's a bit of intelligence there but how stupid would you be to lay your plans [to kill someone] and not make any plans for the fact you're wearing a GPS bracelet," Chris Wilkinson-Smith said.
"He's intelligent, he's not stupid."
The 28-year-old has been on trial in the High Court at Auckland for the last four weeks and his lawyer Mr Wilkinson-Smith - who was re-employed by the man this morning after being sacked on the second day of the hearing - gave a closing address this afternoon.
The Crown's case is that Mrs Gotingco was deliberately run down by the defendant, who was driving through Birkdale in his silver BMW on May 24, 2014.
It is alleged she was then bundled into the back of his car before he took her back to his apartment, raped her, slit her throat and stabbed her repeatedly.
The victim's body was found two days later in Eskdale Cemetery after police tracked the defendant's movements via his GPS anklet.
"[The defendant] says to you this wasn't a planned abduction, this was not a deliberate running down of Mrs Gotingco," Mr Wilkinson-Smith said.
"This was a wet winter's night in May last year, the events happened on a poorly-lit road. She got off the bus that night and was hurrying home to get out of the cold... He had no chance to brake and Mrs Gotingco was hit by this large car."
He admitted it may have been poor driving but there was no malice in his client's actions.
The murder-accused's actions when he got home, of stabbing what he thought was a dead body, were "unusual", the lawyer conceded.
"He panicked, he was high on meth and that thwarted his thinking," Mr Wilkinson-Smith said.
He drew the attention of the jury to the ways the Crown's case had changed since last month and he urged them to use their collective common sense when reviewing the facts.
"Why would this premeditated thing be done a few minutes before he had to be back on curfew?" Mr Wilkinson-Smith said.
"That part of the Crown case is absolutely inexplicable but perfectly explicable if this did start as an accident."
The lawyer also highlighted evidence given by pathologist Dr Carl Wigren.
He could not conclusively say whether Mrs Gotingco was strangled and the blood found in her lungs may have been due to the facial injuries she sustained in the car crash.
The Crown used the word "slitting" to describe a slash mark to the victim's throat but Mr Wilkinson-Smith criticised the choice of word.
"It might be useful to look at the pattern of those injuries and stab wounds to see whether this is the work of a surgical ending of Mrs Gotingco's life or whether it was him not even looking at what he was doing," he said.
"This is the actions of a man in a blind panic."
Mr Wilkinson-Smith was similarly critical of the Crown's reliance on GPS data to establish "murderous intent".
He said the data had significant limitations and though it appeared to show his client wandering around Eskdale Cemetery before the alleged murder, he was actually sitting in his car smoking the last of his methamphetamine.
But earlier, the Crown told the jury "the whole of the defence case is a lie".
"The reason she was there was to be raped and the reason he slit her throat was to kill her," prosecutor Kieran Raftery said.
"Concentrate on what happened in the garage because it's there that the rape occurred and it's there that the murder occurred," Mr Raftery said.
"What happened before and after is, technically speaking, irrelevant; but it's very relevant to the narrative we are talking about."
The defendant told the court, when he gave evidence earlier this week, that he had spent some time by Eskdale Cemetery on the evening of May 24 last year before he hit Mrs Gotingco in his silver BMW.
"It wasn't just a place to smoke the last of his methamphetamine," the Crown said.
"Was it a pure coincidence he went there the following morning to dump the body of Mrs Gotingco?"
Mr Raftery also drew the jury's mind back to the evidence of a young neighbour of the defendant, who said she had heard a scream on the night of the alleged murder.
"If she heard a scream, the man trying to bundle her into his car would certainly have heard. That scream was either Mrs Gotingco trying to resist or screaming in pain from the injuries she'd received," Mr Raftery said
"He knew from that minute she was alive."
Salisbury Rd, dimly lit on only one side, was the perfect street "to take a victim", the Crown submitted.
Mr Raftery said the defendant's explanation that the forensic evidence could have come around from contamination or "police malpractice" was just a series of unspecific claims.
"It is a defence of the desperate," the prosecutor said.
"His semen was found in her vagina. That more than anything tells you why she was taken to that garage -- he wanted to have sex with her."
Earlier today, the defendant reinstated his defence team.
The man, who has name suppression, sacked his lawyer Chris Wilkinson-Smith last month at the beginning of the trial.
Today the court was told that he had applied to Legal Aid to have Mr Wilkinson-Smith reinstated.
That application was approved and the jury was informed of the development before proceedings continued today.
Up until now Mr Wilkinson-Smith was acting as amicus curiae, or friend of the court - someone who is not party to the case but can offer information relating to it that can assist the court.
Mr Raftery said the GPS evidence had shown the defendant had "a good scout around" two cemeteries in quick succession -- Eskdale and Birkenhead.
"Just thinking about it, it's just highly odd he should go to another cemetery having just inspected one for 10 to 12 minutes," he said.
The defendant had explained his presence on Salisbury Rd by saying he was looking for a drug house after a stranger had tipped him off about two spots.
But Mr Raftery said he never went to Beach Haven to check the other tip, despite claiming to be desperate for cannabis.
"It's a story like the whole of his story. It's made up to fit in with the evidence," he said.
There was also scepticism about his claim he was worried about getting home before his 8pm curfew, imposed by Corrections.
"This wasn't a man concerned about his curfew as he was getting a victim before his curfew," Mr Raftery said.
The defendant's version of events was that the frenzied stabbing occurred because he panicked and wanted to make Mrs Gotingco's death look like a random attack.
But Mr Raftery said it was not a five-minute flurry in the garage before retiring to his apartment upstairs.
"He was very busy between 8pm and just before 11. He was busy because he had a number of things to do. The next thing after he raped her was to make sure she could never give evidence against him," he said.
Only one knife was found at the property on which scientists found the victim's blood - a fish-fileting knife in a kitchen drawer.
The defendant was adamant that was not the murder weapon but Mr Raftery said "his word isn't worth much in this courtroom".
He also pointed out the pattern of wounds found by the pathologist on the front and back of Mrs Gotingco's upper body.
"She was struggling and resisting like mad," Mr Raftery said.
The evidence was "the only voice she's got in this trial" and the prosecutor said the only correct verdicts were those of guilty.