Prosecution presents DNA evidence to jury as Fleet double homicide trial continues

Zen Pulemoana, 27 left and Mikaere James Hura, 21. Photo / Rotorua Daily Post

DNA samples taken from blood stains found inside a Bighorn four-wheel-drive vehicle matched those of Raymond and James Fleet, a jury has heard.

In addition, a stain on the back of the driver's seat equated to the DNA of defendant Zen Pulemoana.

The DNA findings were revealed in evidence read by prosecutor Duncan McWilliam in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday where Pulemoana, 27, and Mikaere James Hura, 21, are on trial jointly charged with Martin Hone with murdering the Fleet uncle and nephew.

Hone has already pleaded guilty to the charge and another man, Richard Te Kani, has admitted manslaughter charges relating to the Fleets' deaths.

The Bighorn in which the DNA was found has featured prominently in evidence since the Crown opened its case on Wednesday last week with various witnesses telling of seeing it in the Mamaku area several times before the Fleets are said to have died on August 7.

Earlier yesterday the jury also heard from two female farm workers who were adamant they heard "F*** you, someone is going to be killed" and "you are lucky I didn't shoot you, you c***" coming from the edge of bush the day Raymond and James Fleet died.

Samantha Olney and Hayley Forster recounted how they had mounted a quad bike and gone to investigate the source of the words.

Olney opened her evidence by telling how, on the way to work on the Cecil Rd farm about 3pm on the day the Fleets died, she'd seen a Bighorn 4WD with four people hanging out of it looking as if they were going to have some fun in the bush. There was a van behind it.

Not long after this she heard the words "F*** you, someone is going to be killed", and she alerted Forster.

When they arrived at the end of Cecil Rd the vehicles she had seen earlier were parked there. A man got out of the Bighorn "staunching himself up" as if he was trying to intimidate the two of them. His actions left her feeling uneasy.

As she was leaving work about 9pm the Bighorn came screaming around a corner, nearly clipping her, she said.

Forster said when she heard the words, "you are lucky I don't shoot you, c***", she'd gone to the milking shed, telling her partner, Ben Redpath, something was going on.

Around 8pm that night she had been at her home on the farm when she heard squealing as if a dog was attacking someone.

"They [the squeals] didn't belong to a pig."

She agreed with Pulemoana's lawyer Max Simpkins when she had heard voices coming from the bush she was at least 1.5km away but hotly disputed that her memory of what was said was inaccurate.

Pressed further about this by McWilliam, she said the words were "pretty much screamed".

"I live in a remote area next to the bush line, when these threatening words were said they hit home because I live there, right there. If you hear someone say you are lucky I didn't shoot you, you don't forget that. My memory is vivid."