A defence lawyer in a trial for the murder of a man with a hammer says a secret Crown witness is the killer and it almost defies belief she has not been charged.
The Crown says Dean Browne, 38, was bludgeoned to death Karl Nuku and Rhys Fournier in a Wellington flat, then dumped in a New Plymouth garage.
Mikhail Pandey-Johnson, 24, is accused of masterminding the attack.
In May, the sole eyewitness described the killing, and the jury was told she injected Mr Browne with morphine.
She has not been charged and has name suppression.
Mr Nuku's lawyer Andrew Laurenson told the New Plymouth High Court on Tuesday the witness was paranoid from drug use, hated Mr Browne as she believed he had raped her, and got her revenge by killing him.
Mr Laurenson says police and the Crown have proceeded without following up an alternative explanation right under their noses.
