South Australian police investigating a 2009 murder failed to disclose key information provided by infamous Adelaide siege gunman Rodney Clavell to the man charged with the crime, a court has heard.
Daniel Troy Ames has spent more than a decade in prison after being convicted of murdering his 68-year-old drug dealer uncle Allan Ames at his Cavan workshop in 2009.
The 49-year-old was found guilty on the grounds he had been with his uncle for two hours that night, and sensor lights at the workshop did not show another person enter the property.
The judge found Ames had no motive for the killing, and the murder weapon had never been recovered.
Ames has launched his last bid for freedom in the Court of Criminal Appeal based on "fresh and compelling new evidence" emerging since his 2011 conviction.
He is not seeking an acquittal but wants a retrial.
His lawyers claim another man, convicted drug trafficker Peter Lagerwey, made multiple admissions to the murder before he died of cancer in 2016.
They also submitted that police failed to disclose "significant" evidence provided to them that could have implicated Lagerwey ahead of Ames' trial.
"The police were so focused on investigating Ames that they failed to investigate Lagerwey's lies," Ames' lawyers submitted to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
His lawyer Tom Cox QC submitted that notorious SA fugitive Rodney Clavell – who died after a 13-hour siege at a King William Street brothel in 2014 – told police that Lagerwey was in possession of a large amount of the victim's methamphetamine after the murder.
He said Clavell also told police that Lagerwey admitted disposing of the murder weapon and was aware of a plot to kill Mr Ames – but none of the information was logged in the police system and disclosed to Ames.
During his evidence last Friday, a police officer told the court he did not include the Clavell information on the police running sheet to protect his identity.
"The police were required to enter all information [on the running sheet]. If they wanted to hold back Rodney Clavell's name they could have redacted it," Mr Cox submitted.
He argued the information revealed Lagerwey's connection to the murder victim, his involvement in a murder and undermined his credibility as a prosecution witness at trial.
But Justice Sophie David questioned whether the information provided by Clavell could be used to prove Lagerwey was in a "joint enterprise" with Ames.
"In my submission, that is to look at it assuming the guilt of the accused," Mr Cox replied.
He said Lagerwey had "two windows of opportunity" to commit the murder after Ames left his uncle's workshop that night.
Mr Cox agreed Lagerwey was not captured on CCTV or triggered the sensor lights but said if he went there to commit a robbery, he may not have entered through the front driveway.
"It's true there's no evidence linking Lagerwey to the murder, but there's no evidence at the scene linking my client to the murder," he said.
Prosecutor Jim Pearce QC told the court he accepted the Lagerwey confessions were "fresh" but said the evidence was "not compelling" to allow the Court of Criminal Appeal to order a retrial.
The court heard a "third party" confession would be inadmissible at trial, was "wholly contested" and unreliable.
"Defence did know at trial about the Lagerwey information. They had information that Lagerwey was in it to some extent," Mr Pearce submitted to the court.
He said Ames' legal team at trial "chose not to point the finger at Mr Lagerwey".
Justices David, Mark Livesey and Chris Bleby have reserved their decision.
