Police have retrieved Kim Richmond's car form Lake Arapuni in the Waikato nearly a year after she disappeared
A Hamilton jury will today begin its deliberations as to whether Waikato man Cory Jefferies had murderous intent when he killed his partner of 26 years.
Jefferies denies a charge of murder but admits to causing Kim Richmond's death by manslaughter sometime after they left a function at the Arohena Hall in South Waikato during the early hours of July 31, 2016.
Cellphone data traced the couple's movements leaving from the hall back to their Mangare Rd home about 3.38am.
Their Ford Ranger then stopped about 130m from their home.
Fitbit data recorded her last heartbeat at 3.43am, before the phones were again moving at 3.48am.
Richmond's body was left inside the vehicle and both were dumped in Lake Arapuni.
The cellphone and Fitbit data helped in the discovery of her body 11 months later.
The High Court at Hamilton this week heard how Richmond was found in a partial foetal position on the back seat with some of her clothing pulled up behind her neck and a plastic bag over her head and torso.
Kim Richmond was due to start training for a marathon before her death.
The crown and defence yesterday issued their closing statements. Justice Sally Fitzgerald will this morning deliver her summing up before sending the jury out to begin their deliberations.
Crown prosecutor Ross Douch told the jury of five men and seven women the fact Jefferies had left Richmond "to rot" in the back of the vehicle for 11 months showed the level of "disdain" he had for her.
"It's contemptuous to leave that woman exposed like that to rot in the utility."
As for the threats, a one-off threat could be forgotten. However, repeated threats to various people showed it was having an effect on his state of mind.
Douch also urged the jury to remember the lengths Jefferies went to hide what he'd done for 11 months by lying to the faces of his family including his own children.
"He allows his daughter ... on the first day to get on the phone and text a dead person. Her mother. That's what he was driven to by what he'd done."
Douch said murderous intent stretched from a well thought-out execution to an almost instantaneous killing where the offender knows death is likely but carries on with the act anyway.
Defence counsel Tom Sutcliffe reminded the jury to come to their decision without sympathy or prejudice.
The Ford Ranger, contained Kim Richmond's body, is lifted out of Lake Arapuni on June 15, last year. Photo/File.
"You need to put all that to one side. What you are looking at here, as judges, is what the evidence tells you, what facts that you find proven."
There had been no sign of motivation for his client to kill her that night. It had been an ordinary day on the farm before they got a last minute invitation to the local hall to have dinner and watch the rugby.
"The evidence clearly shows that Kim's death ... was a spontaneous, unscripted event. How else could it be explained?"
The dumping of Richmond in the lake was a "desperate reaction in a very difficult situation".
"What he did is to cover up this terrible thing that has happened. Unquestionably this ruse is not well thought-out although effective for a time. It's his phone and her phone and the Fitbit that lead police to locate Kim and he does his best to maintain the lie.
"But self-preservation and ... the lies that have to be told do not reflect an intention to kill, they reflect the actions of a desperate man."
