A Swansea couple's extreme stress after the death of Shane Geoffrey Barker in 2009 was more consistent with involvement in a cold-blooded killing than with grief over the loss of an ex-son-in-law, a Supreme Court jury heard.
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Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC said in summing up the case that Cedric Harper Jordan, 71, and Noelene June Jordan, 68, told lies because they had a guilty conscience about where they were on the evening of Mr Barker's death.
Mr Coates said the accused lied to police in a statutory declaration when they said they were in Swansea.
They have pleaded not guilty to murder on August 2, 2009. Mr Barker was found dead inside his home with four .22 bullets inside his body.
Mr Coates summed up for a second day evidence heard during the trial, which has run since April 17, 2023.
He said the couple had motive, opportunity, access to a weapon and were linked by ballistics to a cartridge case found at Mr Barker's home after his death.
He said their post offence conduct included being extremely stressed and telling a succession of lies which were told because they knew the truth would implicate them.
The accused said that they were in Swansea on the night of the murder but had changed their story when Telstra information showed their mobile phone travelled along the Midland Highway.
At 7.11 pm their phone bounced off a tower at Oakmont near Perth and at 7.33 pm it bounced off a tower at Youngtown when they sent a message "all good down here" to their daughter Rachel.
"You might think Noelene stuffed up by using her phone on the trip," he said.
Mr Coates said that when their alibi was destroyed they made up inconsistent and improbable versions about where they were, saying they had driven to KFC in Kings Meadows.
But Mr Coates said Mr and Mrs Jordan provided two different versions about their route to KFC, either via Evandale or via the Midland Highway, and then different accounts of who drove and what happened when they got there.
"There is a reason why they came up with the Nile route to try and demonstrate that they didn't have time to commit the murder," he said.
Mr Coates said the couple had a window of three and three quarter hours from about 6pm to 9.45 pm when they were away from home.
"The accused clearly had ample time to commit murder in Campbell Town," he said.
"They had a motive and were there, what are the chances of someone else with a motive being there the same night with a cartridge case linked to their property at Little Pine."
The jury has heard that a cartridge case found at Mr Barker's home was fired by the same weapon as the one which fired cartridges at a Jordan family property at Little Pine in the Central Highlands.
The Crown case is that a pump action .22 rifle which they removed from Mrs Jordan's father Noel Jetson was the murder weapon - although it has never been found.
Mr Coates said the jury could take into account the couple's conduct after the murder.
He said the couple gave different reasons for lying with Mr Jordan saying he didn't want to be hassled and Mrs Jordan saying she was concerned about the safety of her daughter and her then partner Justin Titley.
"Nothing they say can be believed," he said.
"Clearly they were lying to cover up what they were really doing."
Mr Coates said it was a lie, and inherently unlikely, that they had ever picked up a crowbar from Mr Barker's home at 6.45pm on July 26, exactly a week before the murder.
"This was a lie fabricated by Cedric and Noelene Jordan in order to explain any DNA he may have left in the alleyway [where the cartridge case was found at Mr Barker's home] on the night of the murder," Mr Coates said.
Mr Coates said Justice Robert Pearce would direct the jury on what use they could make of lies.
He said the couple conspired and concocted lies because the truth would implicate them.
Mr Coates said the couple were extremely stressed after Mr Barker's death.
He said call records showed Mrs Jordan rang her doctor's surgery five times between 8.58am and 9.14am on Monday August 3 before Mr Barker's death was known.
"They could not possibly be so grief-stricken that they would need counselling or medication," he said.
"You may think it more consistent with involvement in a cold-blooded killing of another and facing further police investigation."
Mr Coates said that there was not a skerrick of evidence that anybody else committed the offence.
His summing up is expected to finish on Wednesday morning.
Mr Jordan's defence counsel Patrick O' Halloran will sum up the defence case and then Mrs Jordan's defence counsel Fran McCracken will sum up.
Justice Robert Pearce will give directions to the jury and discuss some of the evidence after that.
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Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for The Examiner. My journalism career has clicked over 34 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for The Examiner. My journalism career has clicked over 34 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
