Denver Chance murder trial: Drug-dealing at the heart of mystery, jurors told

Denver Chance went missing from the Mairangi Bay room he rented in February 2019 and was found dead the next month. Photo / Supplied

It could either be a desperate act done to neutralise an angry cocaine supplier or a desperate act combined with greed to enrich himself.

Jurors will now have to decide if Jay Christopher Lingman’s story about the shooting of Denver Chance can be relied on.

Jay Christopher Lingman of Kingseat pleaded not guilty to murdering Denver Chance and is on trial. Photo / RNZ

Justice Melanie Harland summed up the case on Monday, nearly three weeks after the murder trial started at Auckland High Court and Lingman pleaded not guilty.

Chance vanished from his Mairangi Bay home in February 2019 and was found dead on Lingman’s Kingseat property near Karaka two weeks later.

Lingman claimed he was home when Chance turned up announced and wielding a shotgun the day after Lingman raided cocaine Chance had stashed in a safe.

Lingman claimed he shut his eyes when opening fire on Chance and couldn’t tell that three bullets struck Chance in the head.

The Crown suggested Chance was never armed at all, and Lingman concocted a story after the killing, realising a self-defence argument was his only hope.

The Crown said greed and desperation could have driven Lingman, who had debts piling up, had arranged to meet Chance, and probably killed him for cocaine and cash.

It’s agreed that Lingman took a chainsaw to Chance’s legs to make him fit inside a chest freezer after the shooting.

If jurors find Lingman used reasonable force in self-defence, he will be found not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter.

Jurors must also ask if Lingman had the necessary state of mind to commit murder.

“You might think the drug dealing aspect of everything is at the heart of what you have to decide here,” Justice Harland said today.

She said the shooting was a tragedy for Chance and his family, and she suggested, for Lingman and his family too.

The court heard suggestions two Head Hunters gang members were looking for Chance after he disappeared.

The court also heard Lingman after the shooting went out drinking and spent a night at SkyCity with a young woman he met on the Seeking Arrangement dating site.

“And this was just shortly before his wife and infant son were due to return to New Zealand,” Justice Harland said.

But these pieces of evidence were not tendered to tarnish anybody’s reputation, the judge said, and jurors would have to be dispassionate.

The jury retired shortly after 11am to consider its verdict.