Shane Barker murder trial: Moment lead detective challenged Cedric Jordan
The lead investigator in Shane Barker’s murder case accused a defendant of fabricating parts of his story, to which the man under questioning replied that he was “wrong”, a trial has heard.
Police & Courts
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An East Coast man accused alongside his wife of shooting to death their daughter’s ex-husband denied suggestions that he had fabricated a trip to the deceased’s house a week before the shooting in case he left evidence behind, a murder trial has heard.
The trial of Swansea husband-and-wife Cedric Harper Jordan, 71, and Noelene June Jordan, 68, continued in Launceston Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty to shooting Campbell Town man Shane Geoffrey Barker, 36, the ex-husband of their daughter Rachel Bowden (nee Jordan), four times on the evening of August 2, 2009.
The jury was played a record of interview between Cedric, Detective Sergeant Mark Lopes – the lead investigator on the case – and another detective from September 2017.
In the video, Sgt Lopes tells Cedric he believed he had “lied to create for yourself a lawful purpose to be at Shane’s house in case you left some forensic evidence behind”.
Sgt Lopes was referring to the defendants’ prior statements that on July 26, 2009, they had driven to Mr Barker’s to pick up a crowbar and then gone on to KFC Kings Meadows for a feed.
“The fact is you did leave forensic evidence behind, you left a shell case,” Sgt Lopes said. “Nup,” Cedric replied.
The trial has previously heard evidence that the casing found at Mr Barker’s 2 East St residence in the wake of his death matched casings discovered at a Jordan family property at Little Pine Lagoon.
Sgt Lopes put it to Cedric several times that he attended Campbell Town on the evening of August 2 to shoot dead Mr Barker.
“You shot him... [then] you shot him another three times,” Sgt Lopes said.
“Wrong,” Cedric retorted.
The defendants have always maintained that they travelled to KFC on both July 26 and August 2.
Ms Bowden, the defendants’ daughter, has previously given evidence that it was a guilty pleasure of her parents’ to make the drive from Swansea to Launceston to indulge in a box of fried chicken.
The trial continues on Thursday.
‘Not possible’: Murder accused quizzed over pump-action .22 rifle
Tuesday, June 13: An interview between police detectives and a woman accused alongside her husband of shooting their daughter’s ex-husband captures the woman informing the investigators that after taking “advice,” she would be answering “no comment” to certain future questions.
The trial of Swansea husband-and-wife Cedric Harper Jordan, 71, and Noelene June Jordan, 68, continued in Launceston Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty to shooting Campbell Town man Shane Geoffrey Barker, 36, the ex-husband of their daughter Rachel Bowden (nee Jordan), four times on the evening of August 2, 2009.
A police interview between Noelene, Detective Sergeant Nathan Hartnett, and another detective on September 6, 2017, was played to the jury.
It was her third record of interview, following an initial two in September and October 2009. She expressed annoyance at the process after being asked about why she and Cedric had initially lied about being at home in Swansea all night (the pair subsequently said they drove to KFC Kings Meadows).
“I’ve been to ask for advice,” Noelene said.
“No comment. You’re just going around in circles, so no comment.”
She was asked extensively about whether she had knowledge of an unregistered .22 pump-action rifle originally belonging to her father. This is the gun, never located, the Crown alleges was used by the defendants to shoot Mr Barker.
“Not to my knowledge,” Noelene replied.
She was then asked why Justin Titley, the defendants’ daughter Rachel Bowden’s partner in the years after Mr Barker’s death, told police he had seen Cedric test fire such a gun at a Brambletye, a family property, in July 2009.
“He’s wrong,” Noelene said.
“It’s not possible... no comment.”
Noelene claimed to Sgt Hartnett and the other detective that Mr Titley had been “harassed” in the lead-up to his record of interview.
Later in the day under cross-examination, Sgt Hartnett was asked by Noelene’s defence counsel Fran McCracken why it took nine months between Sgt Hartnett first making contact with Mr Titley in September 2016 and the witness signing a statutory declaration in July 2017.
It was in the July 3 statutory declaration where Mr Titley first gave evidence about seeing the pump-action rifle handled by Cedric at Brambletye, the court heard.
“No particular reason, other than the fact we were investigating the matter and by the time we were ready [to take the declaration] it was July 3,” Sgt Hartnett said.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
95 other suspects eliminated, detective tells murder trial
Friday, June 9: A detective who investigated the shooting death of a Campbell Town father has told a murder trial how she eliminated 95 suspects whom police had received information about in connection with the death.
The trial of Swansea husband-and-wife Cedric Harper Jordan, 71, and Noelene June Jordan, 68, continued in Launceston Supreme Court on Friday.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty to shooting Campbell Town man Shane Geoffrey Barker, 36, the ex-husband of their daughter Rachel Bowden (nee Jordan), four times on the evening of August 2, 2009.
On Friday afternoon, prerecorded evidence from Tasmania Police Constable Marissa Milazzo, a 24-year police veteran who commenced looking into Mr Barker’s death in 2016 as part of the Hobart Serious and Organised Crime Unit.
She told the court that her role was to look into persons of interest whom Tasmania Police had received intelligence about in connection to the case, but who were not the defendants.
She said that she was handed a file with dozens of names, compiled from the previous Launceston CIB investigation in 2009, but added dozens of her own, eventually arriving at a list of 95 persons of interest.
Using criteria that involved assessing the source of the information and their credibility and whether telephone and bank records showed they had a connection to Mr Barker, Const. Milazzo told the court she was able to eliminate all but 11 after 12 months of investigation.
Between December 2017 and July 2018, she further investigated these 11 persons of interest.
Asked what the result of these further investigations were, Const. Milazzo responded: “They were all eliminated”.
Under cross-examination by Cedric Jordan’s defence counsel Patrick O’Halloran, Const. Milazzo agreed that her investigations had been “hamstrung” by the lapsing of bank and telecommunications records belonging to several of the persons of interest.
She also agreed that if any of the 95 suspects she looked into had any unregistered firearms, this would not come up in her search of the suspects’ firearms records.
‘Make sure they look into him’: New man’s nerves in wake of death
Monday, June 5: The murder trial of an East Coast couple accused of shooting to death their daughter’s ex-husband has been told that the cousin of the daughter’s new partner became worried for his own safety due to his connection to the family.
The trial of Swansea husband-and-wife Cedric Harper Jordan, 71, and Noelene June Jordan, 68, continued in Launceston Supreme Court on Monday, entering its seventh week.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty to shooting Campbell Town man Shane Geoffrey Barker, 36, the ex-husband of their daughter Rachel Bowden (nee Jordan), four times on the evening of August 2, 2009.
Launceston man Grant Burt, the cousin of Justin Titley – who was in a relationship with Ms Bowden in the years after 2007, when she divorced Mr Barker – took the stand on Monday morning.
Mr Burt told the court he was close with his cousin and the pair would often shoot and perform odd jobs together in 2008–09 at the property where Mr Titley, Ms Bowden and her daughter lived at the time, Brambletye Lodge.
He said that in the wake of Mr Barker’s death, Mr Titley expressed “concerns” to him that “Cedric might be involved in it,” and that should anything befall him, get investigators to “make sure they look into Cedric”.
Mr Burt told the court that his cousin said he was nervous because “Cedric had taken the pump-action .22 out [the alleged murder weapon, never found] and put some shots through it before Shane’s murder”.
“That scared him, made him feel like he could be next,” Mr Burt told the court.
He said that Mr Titley had told him that the .22 rifle that he saw “disappeared and nobody seems to know anything about it”.
“[That] put the wind up me too,” Mr Burt told the court.
Mr Titley also told him that in the months prior to Mr Barker’s death, Ms Bowden was suddenly “on him all the time about putting his rifle and ammunition away,” he said.
On previous shooting visits to Brambletye, it had been commonplace to simply leave weapons lying on a rack, Mr Burt said.
Earlier in the trial, Ms Bowden was asked about whether she remembered her father Cedric ever producing a .22 pump-action rifle at Brambletye and running subsonic rounds through it.
She said she had “never” seen a rifle of that description in her parents’ possession.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
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