Two heavily disguised men with a baseball bat and a shotgun burst into the Red Fox Tavern late on a Saturday in 1987, shot the publican dead and emptied the safe. Now two men are on trial.
Chris Bush was shot dead during a robbery at the Red Fox Tavern in Maramarua in 1987. Photo: Supplied / NZ Police
Father-of-two Chris Bush, 43, was drinking with three of his staff after closing, when he was shot dead during a robbery at the Red Fox Tavern in Maramarua just before midnight on 24 October 1987.
Mark Joseph Hoggart and another man, who has interim name suppression, deny charges of murder and aggravated robbery.
The pair, both aged in their early 60s, were arrested in August 2017, after the police reopened the cold case a year earlier.
It is alleged the pair shot Bush and took off with more than $36,000 in cash and cheques from the bar's safe.
Justice Woolford told the jury of seven men and five women there is one issue in this case: who shot Bush?
"Is the Crown able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants were the two heavily disguised and armed men who burst into the Red Fox Tavern late on the evening of Saturday, 24 October 1987, and shot the publican dead and robbing the tavern of its weekend takings," he said.
In his opening address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Ned Fletcher said two intruders burst into the tavern not long before midnight through an unlocked back door.
One was carrying a baseball bat and the other had a sawn-off, double-barrelled shotgun.
Fletcher said the pair were disguised from head to toe.
"They had balaclavas over their faces and gloves on their hands. The man with the gun was short, or certainly the shorter of the two, the man with the bat was tall, or at least clearly the taller of the two."
Fletcher said Bush was known locally as a no-nonsense publican, so when the gunman yelled words to the effect of 'this is an armed hold-up', Bush got off his stool.
"It all happened very quickly, and the witnesses were not necessarily aware of this but from the later scene reconstruction it seems that Mr Bush had his half-pint beer glass in his hand and he hurled it at the intruder," Fletcher said.
It was at that point, the Crown said, the gunman pulled the trigger.
Fletcher told the jury the three bar staff were ordered on to the ground.
He said the intruders demanded the keys to the safe - which were eventually found in a drawer in a desk.
The men cleaned out the safe, taking more than $36,000, tied up the bar staff and fled the scene.
"No vehicle sightings or other information from the public helped the initial investigation team to track them down," Fletcher said. "The gun, the bat, the clothing they were wearing, the money, the coins, the cheques - none of it was located."
Fletcher said with few clues as to the identity of the offenders, the original police investigation wound up in mid-1988, with no one arrested.
The file was examined again in 1999 and 2000, but again, no charges were laid.
It was the reopening of the investigation in 2016 that led to two defendants being arrested and charged in August 2017, Fletcher said.
The pair were persons of interest in the earlier investigations - and had been interviewed by detectives, he said.
The Crown's case would be largely circumstantial, but there were a number of factors that would lead the jury to find the defendants were responsible for Chris Bush's killing, Fletcher argued.
He said it was not a robbery gone wrong - the pair had planned it and taken weapons with them.
Their movements before and after the robbery and shooting were consistent with them having committed the crime, Fletcher said.
The men's whereabouts at the time of the robbery were unknown and they matched the descriptions of the offenders, Fletcher said.
They also had a motive, with both men effectively broke and out of paid work at the time, he said.
"They had rope in their pockets and a clear plan for getting into the safe. Their every action shows an intention to overcome any resistance they encountered through fear, threat and - if required - actual use of violence, using the weapons they had brought," Fletcher said.
"Shooting Christopher Bush when he stood up to them was consistent with this plan.
"This was not a robbery gone wrong, but a successful robbery that the defendants almost got away with."
Fletcher also said the men had hinted to associates over the years about their involvement in the robbery and shooting at the Red Fox Tavern.
'Wrong people on trial'
In his brief opening address to the court, Christopher Stevenson - the lawyer for the man with name suppression - said his client did not shoot Bush and played no part in the crime.
"These men are innocent," he said.
"I'm very sorry to say that nearly 35 years later this case is still unresolved. The wrong people have been put on trial."
Mark Hoggart's lawyer Craig Tuck said his client was not involved either.
He said the case was "one of New Zealand's long-standing and terrible mysteries.
"It's a 35-year-old tragic whodunnit."
The Crown is likely to call more than 60 witnesses in the trial, which could take up to 12 weeks.