A WITNESS in a murder trial says he saw a man pull a screaming woman from a van but soon after went back to playing his video games and even turned up the volume to drown out the sound.
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Mechanic Brandon MacGowan is facing trial in the Supreme Court in Cairns for murdering Mount Isa couple Scott Maitland and Cindy Masonwells, whose bodies were found in scrubland near Cairns in 2012.
Prosecutors argue MacGowan picked them up in a white van from Cairns airport on July 5, 2012 – the last time the pair, aged in their 30s, was seen alive.
They’d flown to Cairns from Mount Isa to collect a panel van MacGowan had agreed to restore, for a fee of $14,000, some months earlier.
Yesterday, Crown witness Brendon Lubbers-Mott told the court that on the night of July 5, 2012, he heard a vehicle pull up outside the workshop where he lived in Cairns.
‘‘When we went outside and had a look I saw a man pulling a girl out of the van by her arm,’’ he said.
He said the woman was screaming and told the man to ‘‘f--- off’’.
‘‘[The man] turned around and walked over to us and said: ‘Hi, I’m Brando’ and said ‘stay out of it’ and walked us back to the shed,’’ Mr Lubbers-Mott said.
He went back inside the workshop and resumed playing his Xbox.
‘‘I heard a bit more screaming so I turned up the TV a bit more,’’ the 21-year-old said.
There was an audible reaction in court as the witness described his actions. Asked why he didn’t call police, Mr Lubbers-Mott said: ‘‘I don’t know’’.
He said the woman sounded like she was scared and frightened and he heard the man tell her to shut up.
About 20 minutes later he heard the vehicle drive off.
When questioned by defence lawyer Josh Trevino, Mr Lubbers-Mott told the court it was too dark for him to get a good look at the man and said he’d never seen the man before that night.
Mr Lubbers-Mott denied he originally told police the man hadn’t identified himself as ‘‘Brando’’.
Crown prosecutor Todd Fuller has argued MacGowan’s failure to carry out restoration work on the couple’s panel van was the motive for the killings.
It’s alleged Mr Maitland died from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head and Ms Masonwells likely died from a single or multiple stab wounds.
MacGowan, 43, told police Mr Maitland and Ms Masonwells left his workshop in their panel van on July 5, 2012, and had planned to drive back to Mount Isa.
He denies the murder charges. The jury trial continues.
