A nine-day depositions hearing began in the Marton District Court yesterday into the killing of Nadine Timmins on Saturday, June 28 in Wanganui.
Karl James Copley Lane faces five charges: one of murder, two of kidnapping, one of commission of a crime with a firearm and unlawful possession of a pistol.
Hearing
the depositions are Justices of the Peace Mike McCarthy and Morris Brookie.
Defence counsel Roger Crowley asked that all the evidence and the names of witnesses be suppressed.
While the main three prosecution witnesses are being heard, a large screen has been put in place, concealing them from Lane, who is sitting with two prison officers.
Crown prosecutor Lance Rowe said the police case alleges that Lane had been travelling in a car that night, together with Nadine Timmins, two other women and a man.
One of the women, who was driving the car, pulled up at a Kowhai St address, where she and the second woman got out to go in to use the toilet, which left Lane, Nadine and the other man in the car.
While they waited, police alleged that Lane had asked Nadine a question and, when she replied, he called her a liar and shot her in the head, in the left temple.
Then Lane had allegedly driven around for a while before driving to Keith St, where he parked the vehicle, leaving it locked with Nadine in the back seat, and went to get his own car, a Holden Commodore.
Nadine Timmins was found by police the following day (Sunday, June 29) about midday.
She was taken to Wanganui Hospital, where she died an hour and a-half later, at 1.30pm.
Lane was found at a Turangi camping area two days later, on July 1.
He told police that he hadn't meant to shoot her and that it had been an accident.
The deposition hearing continues in the Wanganui District Court today until the middle of next week.
