Statement of Detective Sergeant Sam Major dated September 23rd, 2022

1. At about 12 am August 3^rd 2021 I received an emergency call to attend the Black Cat Restaurant at 9 Peyton Place Adelaide because the restaurant's alarm had been triggered. I attended the premises with Senior Constable Joe Briggs.
2. When we arrived at 9 Peyton Place around 12.15 am, we found the restaurant's alarm sounding and alarm lights flashing. The front door, which appeared to have been jemmied, was wide open.
3. Senior Constable Joe Briggs and I entered the premises to determine whether the burglar was still inside. As we entered, I turned on the restaurant's lights at a switch just near the front door.
4. When the lights came on, I noticed a large blood splatter on the restaurant's northern wall. Senior Constable Briggs continued to search the premises for any intruders while I went over to the northern side of the wall to investigate further.
5. About 1.5 metres away from the wall, I found the body of a female aged 40 - 45, who I now know to be Sandra David, the owner of the restaurant. There was a lot of blood, but I could tell that the female had been shot because of the nature of the wound.
6. Once I located the female's body, I immediately called out to Senior Constable Briggs and asked him to ring police headquarters and notify them that there had been a murder and to arrange a team to conduct forensic examination of the scene.
7. While waiting for the forensic team to arrive I noticed a bullet stuck in the northern wall of the restaurant, not far from the blood splatter. I took a photograph of the bullet on my phone. When I got back to police headquarters, I downloaded the photograph from my phone onto the police cloud server. A digital copy of the photograph is appended to this statement at Appendix 3.
8. Using a pocket-knife, I then extracted the bullet from the wall. I placed the bullet into an exhibit bag marked P3, which I later gave to the police ballistics team back at police headquarters.
9. The forensics team arrived and undertook their examination of the scene. While they were there I took a photograph of the victim's body which I have appended to this statement at Appendix 1. The forensics team was there all night and I understood that when they were finished that they arranged for the victim's body to be transported to the Forensic Science Centre for an autopsy.
10. Meanwhile I searched nearby premises to see whether there were any CCTV cameras operating. I found a CCTV camera operating outside a furniture store just across the road from the Black Cat. At that stage the furniture store was closed. The next day I telephoned the owner of the furniture store, Betty Gibbs and arranged to meet her so that I could collect a copy of the CCTV footage taken by the camera.
11. I met Betty Gibbs at the furniture store at 11 am on August 3^rd. She had downloaded the CCTV footage from the previous night onto a USB stick. I took the USB stick back to police headquarters and played it. The footage from 11.40 pm on August 2 showed a tall well-built male wearing a black hoodie, dark glasses and a face mask heading towards the Black Cat restaurant. This figure matches Antony Hinton's height and body shape. He seemed to be carrying a jemmy. Seven minutes later, the footage showed what appeared to be the same figure rushing from the restaurant with a bag and jemmy in one hand and a handgun in the other. The figure raced down the street and then disappeared from view.
12. On my police computer, I made a copy of the CCTV footage from the USB stick and uploaded it to the police cloud server. I am able to produce a copy of the MP4 file to be played at a future trial from the server if required.
13. I attended Sandra David's autopsy on August 4. The doctor conducting the autopsy extracted a bullet from Sandra David's chest area. She gave me the extracted bullet which I placed into an evidence bag marked P10. I sealed the bag and took it to the police ballistics team for examination.
14. On September 8, 2021, I attended an attempted robbery of another restaurant, the Peking Duck in Claret Street, Adelaide around 12.15 am. I was accompanied by Detective Senior Sergeant Mary Connor. When we arrived, we saw that the door of the premises had been jemmied.
15. We entered the premises and found that the owner, Karl Field, had been shot. Field had been shot near the head, but it looked as if the bullet had grazed rather than penetrated his skull. We called an ambulance for Field.
16. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive I searched the premises and found two spent bullets lodged in a wall nearby the victim. I extracted these and placed them into an evidence bag marked P12. I sealed the bag and later gave the bag to the police ballistics team for examination.
17. The ambulance personnel arrived and gave Field first aid then transported him to the hospital.
18. A forensics team arrived soon afterwards and processed the scene for fingerprints, DNA and other evidence. The forensics team found a jemmy, but it didn't appear to have any fingerprints or DNA attached. They took a photograph of the jemmy they found and subsequently uploaded it to the police cloud server. A copy of a photo of the jemmy is attached at Appendix 3.n,2`
19. The next day Senior Sergeant Mary Connor advised me that she had interviewed Field at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and that Field had identified Anthony Hinton as the person who had broken into the Peking Duck and shot him.
20. Armed with this information and relying upon my general search warrant,^[1] I attended Anthony Hinton's home address with Senior Sergeant Mary Connor and a team of 2 other police officers. We intended to search the premises for evidence related to the shootings at the Black Cat and Peking Duck restaurants. We also intended to arrest Hinton and take him to police headquarters in Angas Street for questioning.
21. When we arrived, we were met at the door by Anthony Hinton's aunty, Janet Hinton. We asked to speak with her nephew Anthony. Ms Hinton told us that Anthony no longer lived at the house and she had no idea where he might be found. I produced my general warrant and advised Ms Hinton that we were going to search the premises. Ms Hinton told us to 'Fuck off' and tried to slam the door in our faces. However, we pushed on through and began searching, initially looking for Anthony Hinton. Anthony Hinton was eventually found hiding in a shed at the back of the property.
22. When he was apprehended Anthony Hinton admitted to us that he lived at the premises, and he showed us his bedroom. We began our search from that room. I found a black hoodie and dark glasses similar to the ones I had seen the figure filmed on CCTV footage taken during the robbery at the Black Cat. I found these tucked away at the back of Hinton's wardrobe. Once found, I seized these items and placed them in an evidence bag marked P20 which I later took back to the evidence lock up at police headquarters. I believe that this clothing was subsequently tested for gunshot residue, but none was found.
23. Senior Sergeant Mary Connor and I then began searching the other parts of the premises along with another police constable that we brought with us. The fourth police officer stood guard with Hinton and his aunty while we conducted the search. We found a .38 caliber handgun wrapped in several layers of plastic in the toilet cistern in the property's main bathroom.
24. The gun encased in plastic was placed in an evidence bag marked P43 and later taken to police headquarters for examination and testing.
25. After we finished conducting a search of the premises I returned to where Hinton had been kept under guard. I asked Hinton about the gun, and he answered that he had 'never seen it before in his life.' I then asked Hinton to empty his pockets. Hinton produced a mobile phone and a small plastic bag containing white powder. I asked Hinton what the white powder was, and he admitted that it was methylamphetamine. I placed this small plastic bag containing the white powder into an evidence bag marked P32 and sealed the bag. I gave the bag to Constable Joe Briggs who subsequently took it to police headquarters.
26. I asked Hinton if I could have his phone password so that I could scroll through his phone for information regarding his whereabouts on August 3 and September 8. Hinton's reply to my request was: 'No you can't have my passcode...my phone is private.' I then advised Hinton that he was going to be arrested and that he would not be able to get bail, and that if he wanted bail he had better start cooperating with us. Otherwise, he would be held in custody and his trial could take months or even a couple of years to be heard. Hinton then asked, 'If I give you the passcode, you won't oppose bail?' I said yes. Hinton then told me the passcode which was '123456.'
27. Based on my past training and experience once I had the passcode I placed the phone into airplane mode to keep it from being network contaminated or altered. I then placed the phone in an evidence bag marked P36. Hinton objected to the seizure of the phone, yelling - 'Hey - I need my phone- you can't take it. Why don't you just check through it now then hand it back?' I told Hinton we needed to forensically examine the phone and download any relevant information, and that could only be done at police headquarters.
28. I then cautioned Hinton about his right to silence, placed him under arrest, put him into a police car along with Constable Joe Briggs, and drove him back to police headquarters. During the car ride, I said to Hinton, 'You don't expect anyone to believe that you didn't know about the gun, do you?' Hinton replied: 'I don't know anything about any gun, and I don't know anything about any shooting at the Black Cat or Peking Duck.' As far as I was aware, no police officer had mentioned the names of the restaurants where the shootings took place. I therefore considered that statement very telling, and I made a note of it.
29. When we arrived at police headquarters, I took Hinton to an interview room set up with a video recording system. After activating the video recording system, I began by asking Hinton what he knew about the robberies and shootings at the Black Cat and Peking Duck. Hinton said, 'Nothing.' I then said, 'but you told me in the car journey here that you were aware of shootings at the Black Cat and Peking Duck.' Hinton then said, 'I didn't say nothing in the police car - and I don't want to say any more.'
30. At that point we terminated the interview. I ensured a copy of the recording of the interrogation was downloaded onto the police server. I am able to produce a copy of the MP4 file to be played at a future trial from the server if required.

The Question to be Answered is bellow:

During his evidence in chief, Detective Sergeant Sam Major is asked what Senior Sergeant Mary Connor told him after she interviewed Field at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Defence Counsel objects to this question on the basis that it will elicit prohibited hearsay. Please refer to cases.