Jury sends note in missing campers trial
Written by admin on June 18, 2024
The jury in the trial of former Jetstar captain Greg Lynn has requested recordings of the former pilot’s evidence, as well as the evidence of a ballistics expert from the trial.
Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, is facing trial after pleading not guilty to murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, while on a camping trip in the remote Alpine National Park.
The six men and six women who will decide Mr Lynn’s fate were sent out to deliberate by Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher about 12.30pm Friday.
On Tuesday the jury sent a note to the judge, requesting a recording of the evidence given to the court during the trial by Mr Lynn.
The jury also requested a recording of the evidence given by a ballistics expert with Victoria Police, Senior Constable Paul Griffiths, who conducted examinations on Mr Lynn’s shotgun.
The request was sent by the jury on Tuesday afternoon.
The jury went home about 4pm on Tuesday and will receive an answer to their request on Wednesday morning.
Justice Croucher delivered his summing up to the jury before they retired to deliberate, telling the jury prosecutors alleged Mr Lynn murdered Mr Hill in unknown circumstances and through unknown means in the evening of March 20, 2020, likely following an argument over Mr Hill’s drone.
Mr Lynn then allegedly murdered Mrs Clay by shooting her in the head as a witness to the first slaying, he said of the prosecution’s case.
On the defence case, Justice Croucher said, Mrs Clay died due to the accidental discharge of Mr Lynn’s shotgun as the two men wrestled for control of the weapon.
According to the defence, Mr Hill then attacked Mr Lynn with a knife, falling on the blade as the two men struggled.
Justice Croucher said both parties agree Mr Lynn took a series of steps to hide his involvement in the deaths, including cleaning and burning the campsite, disposing of the bodies only to return eight months later to incinerate them and painting his car and trailer.
He said prosecutors were asking the jury to accept these actions could only be reasonably explained by Mr Lynn’s knowledge he had murdered the pair.
Defence on the other hand, Justice Croucher said, argued that all available evidence supported Mr Lynn’s account of two accidental deaths, and his actions were the result of panic and fear he would be wrongly blamed.
“Mr Dann (Mr Lynn’s barrister) submits the prosecution are asking you to fill in the gaps with speculation,” he said.
Justice Croucher told the jury their job was not to punish Mr Lynn for the “terrible and selfish” actions he had admitted to but to impartially judge if the prosecution had proven the four elements of murder for each death beyond reasonable doubt.
He said Mr Lynn was to be presumed innocent and for the jury to think two accidental deaths was improbable, was “fundamentally flawed”.
The trial returns on Wednesday.
