Wait for decision on murder case action 

Source: ONE News

It will be a few days before police decide what action they will take after a murder charge was dropped against Zion Hiona King in Napier on Monday.

King was accused of fatally stabbing his neighbour, 46-year-old grandmother Chattrice Maihi-Carroll, in her home in January 2008.

Police arrested King two months after the mother of four's naked body was found.

On Monday, on the first day of a trial scheduled to last four weeks in the High Court at Napier, Justice Denis Clifford granted a defence application to dismiss the charge against the 48-year-old former food processing worker.

On Tuesday, a police spokeswoman said a decision on the next course of action would not be decided until police received the judge's written decision on why he granted the defence application.

It was expected to take a few days, the spokeswoman told NZPA.

In court on Monday defence co-counsel Peter Williams QC said there was no forensic evidence offered against King, he had no relationship with the victim, and had always "vehemently denied" the charge.

The basis for the Crown case was evidence of King's former workmates at Hatuma Foods that he had told them about the death of his neighbour before her body was discovered.

Crown prosecutor Russell Collins said it was "unsafe" for the Crown to offer its evidence as a reliable basis for a jury to reach a verdict.

The first trial was aborted last June, with no evidence being heard and Justice Clifford declaring a mistrial.

Speaking to NZPA after the hearing, Williams says the work of private investigators had helped undo the case against King.

"I believe it was not a strong case to begin with. And over a period of time our investigators discovered further evidence which tended to confirm the account that the accused had given to police when he was interviewed.

"We had a group of witnesses who confirmed what the accused had said. Namely that he learnt from police about the murder when he went back home around the middle of the day, and when he went back to work he told people at work about it. That sequence was confirmed by a group of witnesses."

Williams had also recruited a scientist to pursue DNA evidence and consulted with Bond University on the Gold Coast.

After his arrest, Mr King spent 18 months in Hawke's Bay Prison and Auckland's Paremoremo Prison before being granted bail in July last year.

Mr Williams said compensation was going to be investigated and would be discussed with his client "as soon as things settle down a bit".

"But I think a claim will be made."

However, the decision left the victim's family dismayed and distraught.

"We've waited a long time to see justice done for our sister and what have we got," the victim's sister Papara Carroll told One News.

"Someone did do that to my daughter and we'd like it left open to try and find some clues to try and solve this," Maihi-Carroll's mother Rebecca Carroll said.