A man accused of shooting a woman outside a pub on Christmas Eve has told a court he was watching a YouTube video on how to wrap presents on the evening of the murder.
Connor Chapman, 23, is accused of murdering 26-year-old Elle Edwards and injuring five others when he allegedly opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun outside the Lighthouse in Wallasey Village, Wirral, Merseyside, just before midnight on December 24 last year.
Giving evidence at Liverpool Crown Court for a second day on Wednesday, Chapman denied driving to the pub in a stolen Mercedes A Class, which had been parked outside his home on Houghton Road, Woodchurch, and waiting in the area for about three hours before carrying out the attack.
He claimed he had been at home all night, after returning from some Christmas shopping in Manchester at about 7.30pm, and had been wrapping presents.
Asked if he had used his phone during that time, he told the court: “I tried to wrap the presents and it just looked scruffy, so I put into YouTube how to wrap presents and watched that for like 10 minutes, maybe for another 40 minutes after that I had music on on my phone.”
He claimed he was contacted by another man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who asked to use the stolen Mercedes, which Chapman described as a “pool car”.
He said the man also asked to buy five bags of cocaine from him.
Another man came to collect the car at 8.44pm, he said, but he only had enough cocaine for three bags, so told him to return later for the extra drugs, which he would leave outside the back door of his home.
Mark Rhind KC, defending, asked Chapman about the prosecution case that the man seen on CCTV outside his house at 8.44pm drove straight from there to the Lighthouse and carried out the shooting.
The defendant, with his hair in a bun and wearing a white shirt and grey tie, said: “I find it pretty hard to believe it was just one person who sat outside the pub for three and a bit hours on his own, to me it just doesn’t make sense, but that’s just my opinion.”
Asked about CCTV appearing to show the alleged gunman returning to Chapman’s house at 5.20am, the defendant said he assumed the man who collected the car keys had come back to collect two extra bags of cocaine.
He said he did not hear about the shooting until he spoke to his grandmother at about 1pm on Christmas Day.
He told the court he was involved in helping to burn out the Mercedes after he discovered it had been used in the shooting.
He said on December 31 he found out it had not been burnt-out and knew he would be linked to it forensically because he had been using it.
He said: “The car had been involved in murder. I don’t think it takes a criminal to understand that the normal process for somebody wanting to get rid of evidence, so to speak, you would just burn the car, wouldn’t you?”
Finishing his questioning, Mr Rhind asked: “Did you murder Elle Edwards, Mr Chapman?”
He replied: “No.”
Chapman denies the murder of Ms Edwards, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He also denies possession of a Skorpion sub-machine gun with intent to endanger life and possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Co-defendant Thomas Waring, 20, of Private Drive, Barnston, Wirral, denies possessing a prohibited weapon and assisting an offender by helping Chapman to dispose of the car.
