Handless body case verdict - Guilty of Murder | New Zealand

Handless body case verdict - Guilty of Murder

Daniel Moore showed little expression as he was been found guilty in the Wellington High Court of the murder of Tony Stanlake.
Moore had denied murdering the Wellington man whose handless and battered corpse was found last July on a beach at Owhiro Bay. His hands had been removed. The Crown alleged the two men were involved in a cannabis growing operation together, and that greed was Moore's motivation for killing Stanlake. Jurors retired to consider their verdict just after	Drug dealer Tony Stanlake was murdered by Daniel Moore - the motive was greed after Moore decided he wanted all of the profits from their joint cannabis producing operation
midday on Thursday and defence lawyer Greg King says 50 hours is an almost unprecedented wait for a jury to come back with its verdict.

Justice Forrie Miller told the court he doesn't usually comment on cases like this, but in this instance he fully agrees with the verdict. And the head of the police investigation team, Detective Inspector Mike Arnerich, says he agrees with the judge's comment that the verdict was the right one.

Arnerich says he is not surprised by how long it took the jury the deliver its verdict as there was a lot of evidence to consider.

Stanlake's family was visibly relieved as his killer was found guilty of the brutal murder and his daughter Lisa Williams says the verdict has brought a sense of closure. She says the family was worried it may have been a hung jury and she is relieved with the guilty verdict.

Career criminal Daniel Moore killed Tony Stanlake, chopped off both of his hands and dumped his body at a popular New Zealand beauty spot

Williams says it has been a stressful time for her family and she has had to deal with a myriad of health problems as well.

The jury heard Moore killed Stanlake for his money and for his drugs and ONE News can now reveal what the jury didn't hear - that Moore has convictions for theft, cannabis possession and aggravated robbery.

In October 2002 when he was 17 and a student at Wellington High School, Moore went into a dairy wearing a Scream-style halloween mask and armed with a fake pistol. He demanded money from the young woman behind the counter but was interrupted by a man coming into the shop.

The incident left his teenage victim scared and distressed and Moore was jailed for 18 months.

At sentencing for that crime, Moore's lawyer Greg King told the judge that he had turned his life around and was at a low risk of reoffending.

But four years later Moore had branched into drugs - growing and selling cannabis with Tony Stanlake.

Moore, by then a young father, had been introduced to Stanlake by his father Dave, a well known campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis.

Stanlake had smoked cannabis since he suffered a back injury in 1995 which ended his fire service career.

The unlikely partnership between Moore and Stanlake ended when Moore killed him for control of the business in 2006.

Dave Moore once campaigned for the legalisation of cannabis and said: "Smoking cannabis is a choice, it's not a crime. And to my knowledge people who smoke cannabis tend to be less violent than those who drink alcohol."

But for his son, cannabis was a choice that led to murder, and to jail.

Daniel Moore has been remanded until March 28.

http://tvnz.co.nz

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