Phone records put before a Supreme Court murder trial jury have confirmed Lavington man Luke Hargrave was on the phone at the time he was fatally shot.
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The records were produced on Monday during the continuing testimony of the officer-in-charge of the investigation, Detective Senior-Constable Nathan Hogg.
Crown prosecutor Wayne Creasey SC asked Sen-Constable Hogg if Mr Hargrave was on the phone to a Shannon Turnbull in one call logged at 10.47pm on October 29, 2013.
“Yes, for a duration of five minutes and two seconds,” he replied.
It is believed Mr Hargrave, 31, was shot by Campbell Hart, now 30, with a .22 calibre pen pistol that night at or after 10.40pm.
Hart has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Hargrave, though admits to shooting him to the left temporal region at the victim’s Vickers Road home.
The defence is arguing that Hart was suffering from a substantial mental impairment at the time of the shooting, caused by his “ice” addiction.
Mr Hargrave died from major brain trauma in hospital the next day at 5.25am.
After referring to the call made on Mr Hargrave’s phone, Mr Creasey asked Senior-Constable Hogg if a Triple-0 call from the victim’s home that night came from the dead man’s friend Olivia Bromham.
Sen-Constable Hogg said it was, and that the call overlapped the one to Mr Turnbull’s phone “by almost two minutes”.
One of the defences given by Hart to police was that he and Mr Hargrave – a fellow methamphetamine dealer who owed him a $6000 drug debt – got into a struggle after the victim pointed the pistol at him.
But the prosecution has maintained that Mr Hargrave had one hand in his shorts and the other on his mobile phone, on the call to Mr Turnbull, when he was shot and so could not have been holding the pistol.
Albury detectives’ interview with Hart after his arrest on the morning of October 30 took up all of Friday’s hearing.
The informant’s return to the witness box on Monday was followed by questioning from Mr Creasey related to various answers provided by Hart during this interview.
This included a reference to one question where Hart was asked for just how long Mr Hargrave had owed the $6000 for drugs he supplied to him.
Hart replied it was only a matter of a few days.
The trial before Justice Stephen Campbell continues.
