The High Court retrial of two people accused of the murder of Christchurch woman Angela Blackmoore 28 years ago, has begun.
David Peter Hawken and Rebecca Wright-Meldrum were on trial earlier this year but proceedings had to be aborted.
For a second time this year, David Peter Hawken and Rebecca Wright-Meldrum took their place in the High Court dock.
Both are charged with murder for their part in the killing of the 21-year-old, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time.
"Angela Blackmoore sustained a total of 39 wounds to her head, neck, chest, abdomen and limbs," said Crown prosecutor Mitchell McClenaghan.
Crown prosecutors allege Hawken tried to take over property co-owned between the victim and her ex-husband.
Two years ago Jeremy Powell, whom the Crown claims Hawken hired, was jailed for carrying out the murder.
"He told Police that he had carried out the killing under instruction of Mr David Hawken," McClenaghan said.
On the night of August 17, 1995 the Crown alleges Wright-Meldrum and Powell visited Blackmoore who let them into her home because they were friends.
Blackmoore didn't know Powell was armed with a bat and a large knife.
"She then went into the kitchen and at this point, Ms Wright-Meldrum indicated to Mr Powell to attack Angela Blackmoore," McClenaghan said.
Powell will be called as a witness during the trial.
"The key issue for you to focus on is whether Mr Powell is credible," Wright-Meldrum's defence counsel Stephanie Grieve KC said.
Hawken's defence is that he had nothing to do with her murder.
"He had no motive, he had no gain and he had no power," Hawken's defence counsel Anne Stevens KC.
Earlier this year, the trial was aborted after new material came to hand - which counsel needed the opportunity to review.
"The fact that happened is of no concern to you and says nothing about the guilt or innocence of the defendants," Justice Rachel Dunningham said.
A jury of four men and eight women will sit for the trial which is scheduled for five weeks.
