Julia DeLuney in the High Court. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
CCTV footage shows murder-accused Julia DeLuney coming and going from her mother's home on the night of the elderly woman's death.
Helen Gregory, aged 79, was killed in her Khandallah home in January 2024, and her daughter has pleaded not guilty to the crime.
The jury has now seen footage recorded by a neighbour's security camera, showing DeLuney arriving by car about 6.10pm on the evening of January 24, wearing a bright green shirt.
She parked on the street, and ascended the flight of outdoor stairs to the house.
She descended these stairs three and a half hours later, at 9.40pm, but went once more up and down again, before driving away at 9.47pm.
There was a gap of eight minutes between when she arrived back at the address with her husband at 11.26pm, and the first ambulance arriving.
Earlier on Tuesday, the jury in the murder trial heard how police searched DeLuney's apartment for clothing and evidence of cryptocurrency trading.
The search of the Paraparaumu address took place nearly three weeks after 79-year-old Gregory was killed in her Khandallah home.
A number of items were seized, including two green Michael Kors handbags, one with blood on it, a pink macbook, white Mi Piaci shoes, four SD cards, two diaries, her car - a Citroen - and a waste management bin.
Detective constable Mary Smith told the court they were partly guided in their search by a CCTV image of DeLuney putting petrol in a car, wearing light blue jeans and a neon green shirt, which has also been shown to the jury.
Smith said a full itemised list of women's clothing was made during the search, and their task of identifying women's items from men's was made easier by a clear distinction between the apartment's two bedrooms - one containing men's items, and the other, women's.
By the time her apartment was searched, police had already been analysing data from DeLuney's cellphone. More information on this is expected later in the trial.
The Crown's case is that DeLuney murdered her mother in a violent attack, before staging it to look like a fall from the attic, on the evening of 24 January 2024.
But the defence's case is that another person caused those fatal injuries in a 90-minute window in which DeLuney said she left her mother - at this point only minorly injured from that fall - on the floor of a bedroom, to fetch her husband from their Paraparaumu home to help.
The trial is in its third week, and is expected to go on for a further two at least.
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